STUDENT RIGHTS

Academic Rights
1. Student performance will be evaluated solely on academic criteria.
2. Students have protection against prejudiced or capricious academic evaluation.
3. Students are free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled.
4. Students will be fully informed by the faculty about course requirements, evaluation procedures, and the academic criteria to be used in each class. This information will be provided at the beginning of the semester or sufficiently in advance of actual evaluation.
5. Students have the right to have all their examinations and other graded material made available to them with an explanation of the grading criteria. Faculty will retain all such materials not returned to the student for at least one full semester (or through spring plus summer sessions) after the course was given. Faculty are not required to return such material to the student, but must provide reasonable access.

STUDENT ACADEMIC CONDUCT

Academic Honesty
If a student is uncertain about an issue of academic honesty, he/she should consult the faculty member to resolve questions in any situation prior to the submission of the academic exercise.
Violations of academic honesty include but are not limited to:

Cheating
Definition: Cheating is intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, notes, study aids or other devices or materials in any academic exercise.
Clarification
1. Students completing any examination are prohibited from looking at another student’s examination and from using external aids (for example, books, notes, calculators, conversation with other) unless specifically allowed in advance by the faculty member.
2. Students may not have others conduct research or prepare work for them without advance authorization from the faculty member. This includes, but is not limited to, the services of commercial term paper companies.

Plagiarism
Definition: Plagiarism is intentionally, knowingly, or carelessly presenting the work of another as one’s own (i.e., without proper acknowledgment of the source). The sole exception to the requirement of acknowledging sources is when the ideas, information, etc., are common knowledge.
Instructors should provide clarification about the nature of plagiarism.
Clarification
1. Direct Quotation: Every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks or appropriate indentation and must be properly acknowledged, in the text by citation or in a footnote or endnote.
2. Paraphrase: Prompt acknowledgment is required when material from another source is paraphrased or summarized, in whole or in part, in one’s own words. To acknowledge a paraphrase properly, one might state: “To paraphrase Locke’s comment,...” and then conclude with a footnote or endnote identifying the exact reference.
3. Borrowed facts: Information gained in reading or research which is not common knowledge must be acknowledged.
4. Common knowledge: Common knowledge includes generally known facts such as the names of leaders of prominent nations, basic scientific laws, etc. Materials which add only to a general understanding of the subject may be acknowledged in the bibliography and need not be footnoted or endnoted.
5. Footnotes, endnotes, and in-text citations: One footnote, endnote, or in-text citation is usually enough to acknowledge indebtedness when a number of connected sentences are drawn from one source. When direct quotations are used, however, quotation marks must be inserted and acknowledgment made. Similarly, when a passage is paraphrased, acknowledgment is required.
Faculty members are responsible for identifying any specific style/format requirement for the course. Examples include but are not limited to American Psychological Association (APA) style and Modern Languages Association (MLA) style.