Chris Loschiavo is on a first-name basis with cheaters. As director of Student Judicial Affairs, he is the person faculty members must report to when a student violates the University’s Student Conduct Code policy on academic integrity. If students are caught plagiarizing, cheating, fabricating or otherwise engaging in academic misconduct, their names may end up in his file cabinet.
Loschiavo and a panel of faculty and students will be hosting “Academic Integrity: What your degree is worth,” a discussion at the Knight Library Browsing Room tonight at 6 p.m. The panel is geared toward educating students on the importance of preserving their academic integrity, the consequences of cheating and ways to avoid resorting to such conduct.
Tonight’s discussion is part of a week-long seminar conducted by the Office of Judicial Affairs. Since Thursday, faculty members have been attending workshops and discussions to better educate themselves on how to handle student dishonesty.
“The idea is to get faculty and students involved and talking about this issue,” Loschiavo said. “Preserving academic integrity is a shared responsibility.”
The Student Conduct Code defines academic dishonesty in four ways: plagiarism, cheating, fabrication and academic misconduct. If a student is caught violating the code, faculty members are supposed to first address the student, determine the grade penalty, and then file with the Office of Judicial Affairs. The conduct code mandates all acts of academic dishonesty be reported, regardless of whether the student admits to cheating or not.
The code also has suggestions for students on how to avoid cheating, such as being informed about their instructors’ guidelines and refusing to assist other students who may be caught cheating, as well as suggestions for instructors on how to address the issue with students.
Some universities have adopted honor codes with controversial guidelines that would require a student who knows about or witnesses an act of academic dishonesty to report it to school officials. If the student fails to do so, they could share responsibility with the student who cheated. Loschiavo said the University is considering excluding this section if they adopt an honor code system.
About 130 cases of academic dishonesty were reported to his office last year, according to Loschiavo.
Journalism Professor Tom Wheeler said it’s important that students are aware about what is acceptable behavior and what is not. He added much of the conduct code addresses common sense issues, but there are some practices that students may be unaware are violations.
“Most students probably understand it’s not OK to lift a term paper off the Internet,” Wheeler said. “But some departments have different policies regarding
students collaborating when writing papers.”
Wheeler said he addresses the issue of plagiarism to his students in the class syllabus, taking quotes directly from the Student Conduct Code, so from the beginning, students are informed of his policies.