Academic Discipline Committee
Annual Report to the Faculty
2006-07

The Academic Discipline Committee had one general meeting in early fall to discuss issues and procedures, and three hearings to adjudicate student appeals.

A total of 15 violations of academic integrity have been reported to the Associate Academic Dean thus far during 2006-07. In addition, 3 cases arose last spring, after the annual report for 2005-06 had already been submitted. These 18 cases involved 21 students. All but three of those students accepted responsibility for the infraction and accepted the penalty proposed by the professor of the course. The ADC reviewed the cases that the students did not dispute, as charged by file 190.6, but took no further action on them.

Hearings were impaneled for the three students who either disputed the charge or the penalty. In two cases, the students denied the charge of academic dishonesty. In one of these cases, the ADC found that the student had not violated academic integrity, and recommended that no penalty be assessed. In another case, the ADC upheld the professor’s finding of plagiarism and the professor’s proposed penalty. In the third case, the student accepted responsibility for academic dishonesty, but disputed the proposed penalty. The ADC upheld the penalty, and assessed an additional penalty due to prior offenses.

In reviewing the nature of the offenses in these 18 cases from May 2006 to May 2007, the following summary is offered. There were 2 cases of unauthorized collaboration, 1 case of cheating by copying another student’s paper, 6 cases of cheating on tests, and 9 cases of plagiarism of published material. All nine of the plagiarism cases involved internet sources, and all were detected using “turnitin.com.” Last year, the ADC reported surprisingly few violations of academic integrity, but this year’s figures are higher again, suggesting that 2005-06 did not necessarily signal an improving trend.

Respectfully submitted,

Joe Pollard (chair), John Batson, Michael Brodeur, Jack Garihan, Tamara Matthews, Savita Nair, Paul Thomas, Robin Visel, Betsy Butler (student), Dixon Dabbs (student), Margaret Harouny (student), Brandon Anderson (student), Silas Pearman (ex officio).