A rise in academic dishonesty is spurring the university to implement a new honor code effective in the fall, Student Conduct director Heather Snow said.
The Student Conduct Office had 183 referrals for students in connection with academic dishonesty during the 2008-2009 academic year. That number nearly doubled to 325 for the 2010-2011 academic year, Snow said.
As a result, Student Conduct was a part of a task force Frank Lamas, vice president of Student Affairs, and former Provost Don Bobbitt convened to look at the issue of scholastic dishonesty on campus, as well as what the university can do to prevent it, Snow said.
The office plans to hire an assistant director for student conduct. That person will be responsible for handling all academic dishonesty cases.
The office and David Silva, vice provost for Academic Affairs, teamed up and will introduce the new honor code to faculty members Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The honor code is a pledge students will sign at the start of each semester and whenever they turn in major assignments, Snow said.
Nursing senior D.J. Arrieta said he thinks the honor code is a good step toward preventing cheating.
Most of the cheating he he has seen classmates engage in is online quizzes and homework, Arrieta said.
Numbers do not show that more students cheat on online assignments than in class assignments, Snow said.
Arrieta said he thinks the perception of cheating has changed over time. The 30-year-old remembers when cheating was not even a thought among students.
Info on Academic Dishonesty
- The UT System lists three main components of academic dishonesty: cheating, plagiarism and collusion.
- Using a cheat sheet on a test or copying someone’s work classifies as cheating.
- Collusion is working with other students on individual work.
- Plagiarism can be knowingly or unknowingly citing materials inaccurately.
- A student in first-time violation of one of the main components typically receives academic probation and may be required to take a cheating education course.
- A second-time offense usually results in a one-year suspension.
“Now students are burdened with so much work,” Arrieta said. “They’re not cheating themselves from learning. They’re just trying to navigate the system.”
Andrew Kruzic has been an engineering professor at UTA for 23 years. In that time, he has referred at least six students to Student Conduct for academic dishonesty, but he has suspected more.
A study done by Duke University shows almost 75 percent of students have knowingly engaged in some form of academic dishonesty.
Given that statistic, 325 academic dishonesty referrals in one year is average for a campus UTA’s size, Snow said.
“As our campus number continues to increase, that number will likely go up,” Snow said. “Academic integrity is coming to the forefront in the Student Conduct Office.”
Student Conduct has never dealt with a third-time offender, Snow said.
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