The University of Arizona
e-Newsletter Header


April 2008
Volume 1, Issue 2
 

Hot Topic
Academic Integrity at the UA

Hot Topic

By Keith B. Humphrey, Ph. D.

Corporate and personal scandals are a part of today’s society. Everything from corporate dishonesty in the Enron debacle to the individual integrity issues of Lindsay Lohan sends messages about issues of personal integrity to our students. It is no surprise that academic integrity issues on college campuses, including The University of Arizona, are garnering greater levels of attention.

Academic integrity at the UA has always been an important issue, and one that the Dean of Students Office works hard to promote with students beginning at new student Orientation until graduation. The period of 1999-2000 through 2006-07 saw a 348 percent increase in violations of the Code of Academic Integrity. It is hard to say if recent students are committing more violations, or if new technologies like Turnitin.com (see Research and Trends article for more information) are just making detecting violations easier. The Dean of Students Office, in partnership with the faculty, manages the Code of Academic Integrity with the goal of educating students and reducing violations. In addition to managing the Code, the Dean of Students Office frequently consults with individual faculty members, college Deans, and accused students when academic integrity issues arise.

The Code of Academic Integrity and its processes have been developed by the Faculty Senate and place the majority of the responsibility with individual faculty. This allows each faculty member to set the threshold for violations in their classroom rather than requiring faculty with diverse and innovative teaching styles to conform to a centralized system.

Still, a campus as large as the UA necessitates there be some level of consistency in administering the Code of Academic Integrity. At the heart of the process is the faculty-student conference that takes place when a faculty member believes an academic integrity violation has occurred. The faculty-student conference is an opportunity to fully explore the proposed violation, ensure that the student understands what they may have done improperly, and for the faculty member to assign sanctions (if the faculty member, after consulting with the student, concludes that a violation has occurred). Faculty members have sole discretion in assigning sanctions to students – everything from a written warning through expulsion are available options – depending on the seriousness of the violation. To learn more about the academic integrity process, sanction options, and what happens if a student appeals a faculty member’s decision, please listen to our podcast.

The Dean of Students Office recently formed an Academic Integrity Advisory Council to help our office review and update the code, develop plans to educate students and faculty about the code, and to create innovative sanctions that increase faculty sanction options and allow students to learn from their mistakes. The members of the Academic Integrity Advisory Council are listed at the bottom of this article. If you have ideas that you would like this council to address, please contact your college representative or Dr. Keith Humphrey, Associate Dean of Students, at 621-7059 or via email at khumphrey@arizona.edu.

Currently, the Academic Integrity Advisory Council is in the process of creating a seminar that is aimed at students who plagiarize. Plagiarism is the most frequent academic integrity violation each year, accounting for over 75 percent of violations. This seminar will address issues of ethics and moral development, the process of developing an effective research paper, and understanding proper citation format. This seminar could be a sanction option for faculty members who have students who plagiarize: students could attend the three-session seminar in lieu of a harsher sanction. Failure to complete the seminar could result in the student receiving the harsher sanction and losing their ability to appeal a decision. We hope to launch the seminar, still under development, in Fall 2008 as a pilot in several colleges, with full campus implementation in Fall 2009.

Academic integrity issues can provide some unique challenges to faculty. Fortunately, most faculty do not encounter violations on a regular basis, but as a result this can lead to some confusion about what to do when a violation occurs. The Dean of Students Office is available to consult with faculty when you are unsure about the process, what sanction to assess, or other questions about the Code. Please feel free to contact Dr. Keith Humphrey, Associate Dean of Students, at 621-7059 or via email at khumphrey@arizona.edu.

Important Academic Integrity Resources

Code of Academic Integrity
Podcast on the Academic Integrity Process
Record of Faculty-Student Conference Form (PDF)

Academic Integrity Advisory Council members

Connie Beck, Psychology
Bradley Burns, ASUA
Amy Davis, Nursing
Thomas Fleming, Astronomy
Juan Garcia, Provost’s Office
David Gibbs, History
Jerrold Hogle, Provost’s Office
Keith Humphrey, Dean of Students Office
Elaine Marchello, Agriculture and Life Sciences
Paul Melendez, Management
Susan Moody, Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Teresa Moreno, Arizona State Museums
Vickie Radoye, Nursing
Clare Rowe, Theater Arts
James Shockey, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Chris Tisch, Public Health