Academic Integrity Policy
Personal integrity is a behavioral expectation for all members of the Messiah community: administration, faculty, staff, and students. Violations of academic integrity are not consistent with the community standards of Messiah College. These violations include:
- Plagiarism: Submitting as one’s own work part or all of any assignment (oral or written) which is copied, paraphrased, or purchased from another source, including online sources, without the proper acknowledgment of that source. Examples: failing to cite a reference, failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, misrepresenting another’s work as your own, etc.
- Cheating: Attempting to use or using unauthorized material or study aids for personal assistance in examinations or other academic work. Examples: using a cheat sheet, altering a graded exam, looking at a peer’s exam, having someone else take the exam for you, sharing information about exams, using any kind of electronic mobile or storage devices (such as cell phones, PDA’s, Blackberry, iPods, iPhones, iPads, Flash drives, DVD’s, CD’s, photocopy pens) for unapproved purposes, communicating via email, IM, or text messaging during an exam, using the internet, sniffers, spyware or other software to retrieve information or other students’ answers, etc.
- Fabrication: Submitting altered or contrived information in any academic exercise. Examples: falsifying sources and/or data, etc.
- Misrepresentation of Academic Records: Tampering with any portion of a student’s record. Example: forging a signature on a registration form or change of grade form.
- Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: Helping another individual violate this policy. Examples: working together on an assignment where collaboration is not allowed, doing work for another student, allowing one’s own work to be copied.
- Computer Offenses: Altering or damaging computer programs without permission. Examples: software piracy, constructing viruses, introducing viruses into a system, copying copyrighted programs, etc.
- Unfair Advantage: Attempting to gain advantage over fellow students in an academic exercise. Examples: lying about the need for an extension on a paper, destroying or removing library materials, etc.
The full policy is published in the Student Handbook and the College communicates the policy to students via the new student orientation program. However, primary responsibility for knowledge of and compliance with the policy rests with the student.