Academic Integrity
West Georgia Technical College encourages an academic culture of honesty and personal integrity among its faculty, staff, and student body. Academic integrity is defined by the Center for Academic Integrity as “a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.” In this context, academic honesty means performing all academic work without plagiarizing, cheating, lying, tampering, stealing, receiving assistance from any other person or using any source of information that is not common knowledge (unless authorized by the instructor). The work of another person represented as one’s own is dishonest and does not fairly measure the competence, knowledge, and achievement of the individual. Academic dishonesty is contrary to the standards, ethics, and goals of higher education and is unacceptable in the technical college community. West Georgia Technical College promotes and expects each member of the College to conduct himself or herself with professional behavior and intellectual integrity.
Prohibited behaviors include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Plagiarizing any assignment. “Plagiarism” means using someone else’s ideas or words without using quotation marks and/or giving credit by citation of source(s).
- Copying/submitting another person’s work.
- Unauthorized taking of someone else’s work.
- Using unauthorized notes or equipment (including programmable calculators) during an examination.
- Stealing an examination or using a stolen examination.
- Allowing another student to have access to your work, thereby enabling that student to represent the work as his or her own.
- Having someone else take an assessment in your place.
- Fabricating information such as data for a lab report.
- Falsifying a patient’s medical record or a student’s clinical record.
- Using another person’s personal electronic file or copying another student’s computer program.
Depending on the severity of the situation, any student found to be in violation of any of the above prohibitions will be subject to a range of disciplinary actions, which may include the following:
- A zero for the assignment
- An F for the course
- Dismissal from the program
- Dismissal from the College
In addition, copyrighted material may not be knowingly copied or included in student submitted material or for personal benefit in violation of copyright laws or regulations without the written consent of the copyright owner(s) or a duly authorized agent(s). Academic Integrity policies including violations and permitted usage of copyrighted materials are outlined in the Student Code of Conduct available to students in the Student Handbook.
The Student Code of Conduct (see the Student Handbook) is enforced for traditional, hybrid, web-enhanced, and online classes.