Plagiarism Policy

This is an excerpt from the more complete Graduate Handbook, which explains many of the policies in the Computer Science graduate program.

The Department wishes to emphasize that cheating on examinations (whether in-class or take-home) and plagiarism on programming assignments or other work will not be tolerated. Penalties for these offenses will likely include failure for the course involved, and could include expulsion from the university. Any student who encourages plagiarism by showing his/her work on an assignment to another student will be subject to the same penalties. Students must work alone on assignments unless given explicit permission to work together by the course instructor or the assignment description.

The following material is excerpted from the Student Policies Handbook of NDSU. All graduate students are subject to these regulations. A complete copy may be found in the University Telephone Directory.

1. The primary responsibility of the students, faculty, and administration is to create an atmosphere where the honesty of individuals will not be questioned.

a. Faculty members are responsible for providing guidelines concerning cheating and plagiarism at the beginning of each course, and should use precautionary measures and security in cases where cheating is likely to occur.

b. Students are responsible for submitting their own work. Students who cooperate on oral or written examinations or work without authorization share the responsibility for violation of academic principles, and the students are subject to disciplinary action even when one of the students is not enrolled in the course where the violation occurred.

2. The faculty member and the administration are responsible for procedural fairness to the accused student or students in accordance with the following procedure:

a. Faculty members who suspect that prohibited academic conduct has occurred in their class have an initial responsibility for informing the student or students involved of their suspicion and the grounds thereof, of allowing a fair opportunity to refute them, and of making an impartial judgment as to whether or not any prohibited academic conduct occurred only upon the basis of substantial evidence.

b. Faculty members have the prerogative of determining the penalty of prohibited academic conduct in their class. Faculty members may fail the student for the particular assignment, test or course involved, or they may recommend that the student drop the course in question, or these penalties may be varied with the gravity of the offense and the circumstances of the particular case.

c. In addition to the prerogative above, or if the student is not enrolled in his or her course, the faculty member may recommend a disciplinary sanction to the dean of the college. The dean may impose academic warning or probation in the college, or the dean may recommend suspension or expulsion to the Academic Standards Committee as outlined in Section 4. If the student is not enrolled in the college where the infraction occurred, the dean of the college for the student must be informed before the disciplinary sanction is imposed and may impose a disciplinary sanction for that college, also.

d. If a person not currently enrolled at NDSU is involved in prohibited academic conduct, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Student Affairs, and the Director of Admission shall be informed of the violation.

3. A student who has received a penalty or a disciplinary sanction for prohibited academic conduct may appeal the decision.

a. The student must consult with the instructor, the department chairman, and the Dean, in sequence, to resolve the conflict.

b. Then, the student may request a hearing by the Student Progress Committee in the college where the violation occurred. In addition, the student may request two students be appointed to the Student Progress Committee for the hearing; one student shall be a member of the Student Court appointed by the Chief Justice of the Student Court, and the other student shall be a Student Senator for the college appointed by the Student Body President.

Version: September 2002
John Martin, Graduate Coordinator
Brian M. Slator, Head