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Excerpts from the Student Rights and Responsibilities section of the 2009-2010 WMU Graduate Catalog:
Code of honor
Western Michigan University (WMU) is a student-centered research university that forges a responsive and ethical academic community. Its undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs are built upon intellectual inquiry, investigation, discovery, an open exchange of ideas, and ethical behavior. Members of the WMU community respect diversity, value the cultural differences of those around them, and engender a sense of social obligation. Because of these values, all individuals are expected to conduct themselves in a professional and civil manner. This includes exemplifying academic honesty, integrity, fairness, trustworthiness, personal responsibility, respect for others, and ethical conduct. These attributes are exhibited in the University as well as in the community. Members of the University community abide by this code out of commitment to serve as responsible citizens of the University, the community, the nation, and the world. Responsibility for fulfilling the obligations of the code of honor is shared by the students, faculty, and every other member of the University community.
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Student rights
Academic Rights
Students have those academic rights and responsibilities as described in the University catalogs, including but not limited to the following:
- Student performance will be evaluated solely on academic criteria.
- Students have protection against prejudiced or capricious academic evaluation.
- 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.
- Students will be informed by the faculty about course requirements, objectives, and policies in each class. This information will be provided at the beginning of the semester or sufficiently in advance of actual evaluation.
- Each course instructor is required to make available to students a course syllabus that shall contain a basic course description, course objectives, course requirements and policies, grading criteria, and instructor contact information. Instructors are encouraged to include a tentative schedule indicating when various topics will be addressed, and when quizzes, exams and due dates for assignments shall occur. Instructors are further encouraged to include in their syllabi basic University policies regarding academic conduct, human rights, diversity, and students with disabilities.
- 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 the Summer I and Summer II sessions) after the course was given. Faculty are not required to return such material to the student, but must provide reasonable access.
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Student academic conduct
Academic Honesty
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
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- Borrowed facts: Information gained in reading or research which is not common knowledge must be acknowledged.
- 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.
- 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.
Conduct In Research
Research and creative activities occur in a variety of settings at the University, including class papers, theses, dissertations, reports or projects, grant funded projects and service activities. Research and creative activities rest on a foundation of mutual trust. Misconduct in research and in creative activity destroys that trust and is prohibited. Students shall adhere to professional standards of integrity in both artistic and scientific research including appropriate representations of originality, authorship and collaborative crediting.
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