CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity
Academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York. Penalties include academic sanctions such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion.
Definitions and Examples of Academic Dishonesty
Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information, notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise. Examples include:
- Copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your work
- Unauthorized collaboration on a take-home assignment or examination
- Using notes during a closed book examination
- Taking an examination for another student, or asking or allowing another student to take an examination for you
- Changing a graded exam and returning it for more credit
- Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to more than one course without consulting with each instructor
- Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an examination
- Allowing others to research and write assigned papers or do assigned projects, including use of commercial term paper services
- Giving assistance to acts of academic misconduct/dishonesty
- Fabricating data (all or in part)
- Falsifying data (in whole or in part).
- Submitting someone else’s work as your own
- Unauthorized use during an examination of any electronic devices such as cell phones, palm pilots, computers or other technologies to retrieve or send information
Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. Examples include:
- Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source
- Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source
- Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments
- Internet plagiarisim, including submitting downloaded 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
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/her academic work over another student, Examples include:
- Stealing, reproducing, circulating or otherwise gaining advance access to examination materials
- Depriving other students of access to library materials by stealing, destroying, defacing or concealing them
- Retaining, using or circulating examination materials, which clearly indicate that they should be returned at the end of the exam
- Intentionally obstructing or interfering with another student’s work
Falsification of records and official documents.
Examples include:
- Forging signatures of authorization
- Falsifying information on an official academic record
- Falsifying information on an official document such as a grade report, letter of permission, drop/add form, ID card or other college document
More detailed information about the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity, which was revised and adopted by the Board of Trustees effective July 1, 2011, may be accessed at: http://www.cuny.edu/about/administration/offices/legal-affairs/policies-resources/academic-integrity-policy/