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Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity Policy

Kingsborough Community College strives to promote academic integrity among students to help prepare them for their future endeavors. The International Center for Academic Integrity defines academic integrity by 5 core values. These values are as follows:

  1. Honesty: The quest for truth and knowledge by requiring intellectual and personal honesty in learning, teaching, research, and service
  2. Trust: Academic institutions must foster a climate of mutual trust in order to stimulate the free exchange of ideas.
  3. Fairness: All interactions among students, faculty and administrators should be grounded in clear standards, practices and procedures.
  4. Respect: Learning is acknowledged as a participatory process, and a wide range of opinions and ideas is respected.
  5. Responsibility: A thriving community demands personal accountability on the part of all members and depends upon action in the face of wrongdoing.

To reach academic success, one needs to uphold the 5 core values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.  Failure to do so may result in charges of academic dishonesty.  Academic dishonesty is prohibited by CUNY and Kingsborough Community College and is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion.  Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, internet plagiarism, obtaining unfair advantages, and falsification of records. 

Definitions and Examples of Academic Dishonestly

  1. Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communications during an academic exercise.  Examples of cheating include but are not limited to:
  2. Copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your work.
  3. Unauthorized collaboration on a take home assignment.
  4. Using notes during a closed book examination.
  5. Changing a graded exam and returning it for more credit.
  6. Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to more than one course without consulting with each instructor.
  7. Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an examination.
  8. Allowing others to research and write assigned papers or do assigned projects, including using commercial term paper services.
  9. Giving assistance to acts of academic misconduct/dishonesty.
  10. Fabricating data (in whole or in part).
  11. Falsifying data (in whole or in part).
  12. Submitting someone else's work as your own.
  13. Unauthorized use during an examination of any electronic devices such as cell phones, computers or other technologies to retrieve or send information.
  14. Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's ideas, research or writings as your own.  Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to:
  15. Copying another person's actual words or images without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source.
  16. Presenting another person's ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source.
  17. Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.
  18. Internet plagiarism, including submitted downloaded term papers or parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, or cutting and pasting from various sources without proper attribution.
  19. Obtaining Unfair Advantage is any action taken by a student that gives that student an unfair advantage in his/her academic work over another student, or an action taken by a student through which a student attempts to gain an unfair advantage in his or her academic work over another student.  Examples of obtaining unfair advantage include but are not limited to
  20. Stealing, reproducing, circulating or otherwise gaining advance access to examination materials.
  21. Depriving other students of access to library materials by stealing, destroying, defacing, or concealing them.
  22. Retaining, using or circulating examination materials which clearly indicate that they should be returned at the end of the month.
  23. Intentionally obstructing or interfering with another student's work.
  24. Falsification of Records and Official Documents.  Examples include but are not limited to:
  25. Forging signatures of authorization.
  26. Falsifying information on an official academic record.
  27. Falsifying information on an official document such as a grade report, letter of permission, drop/add form, ID card or other college document.

Reporting Suspected Incidents of Academic Dishonesty

Once a faculty member suspects that a student has committed a violation of the CUNY Academic Policy, he or she shall review with the student the facts and circumstances of the suspected violation whenever feasible.  If a faculty member concludes that here has been an incident of academic dishonesty sufficient to affect the student's final course grade shall report the incident on the Faculty Report Form for Suspected Incidents of Academic Dishonesty.

The Academic Integrity Officer shall update the Faculty Report Form for Suspected Incidents of Academic Dishonesty after a suspected incident has been resolved to reflect the resolution.  Unless the resolution exonerates the student, the Academic Integrity Officer shall place the form in a confidential academic integrity file created for each student alleged to have violated the Academic Integrity Policy and shall retain each form for the purposes of identifying repeat offenders, gathering data, and assessing and reviewing policies.  Unless the student is exonerated, written decisions on academic integrity matters after adjudication shall also be placed in the student's academic integrity file. 

For more information regarding CUNY’s Academic Integrity policy, please refer to https://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/legal-affairs/policies-procedures/academic-integrity-policy/.