CALIFORNIA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

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Following the procedures consistent with due process, students may be placed on probation, suspended, dismissed, or given a lesser sanction for any of the following reasons: Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else's ideas or work as one's own. An obvious form of plagiarism is intentionally stealing someone else's work. Using another person's sentence, phrase, or even a word that a person coined requires students to acknowledge the source of the sentence, phrase or coined word. To acknowledge the source, students can either use quotation marks or paraphrase the author. In both cases, students must cite the source of the quotation or paraphrased ideas properly. Cheating or Other Academic Dishonesty Any form of academic dishonesty reveals a serious lack of personal integrity and detracts from the quality of a student's education. As such, cheating is a violation of University policy because it diminishes the quality of student scholarship and defrauds those who rely on the integrity of the University's academic programs. Academic dishonesty is considered to be any form of cheating or plagiarism (see above), or an attempt to obtain credit for academic work through fraudulent, deceptive or dishonest means. The following are examples of academic dishonesty, but are not intended to be inclusive: • Using or attempting to use, unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise, such as copying from another student's test • Submitting work previously presented in another course • Using sources or materials not authorized by the instructor in an examination • Altering grading materials • Sitting for an examination by a surrogate or acting as a surrogate • Conducting any act which defrauds the results of the academic process • Violating software copyrights A faculty member has two options to resolve issues of cheating or plagiarism. The first option is to take care of the matter himself or herself and the second option is to refer the matter to the University for appropriate Action. When an instructor has adequate evidence of academic dishonesty on the part of a student, the instructor can take action against the student under the first option. Variables affecting the severity of student penalties include whether the dishonesty was premeditated, the extent of the dishonesty (one answer or an entire project), the relative importance of the academic exercise (e.g., quiz or final examination), and whether the dishonesty was active or passive. Specific penalties that are considered are: • Review with no action Page 26 of 65