Student Handbook
Student Responsibilities and Rights
Responsibilities
Each student is expected to become familiar with the Honor Code as well as the entire Academic Integrity System and to appreciate the reasoning behind it, such as the emphasis placed on moral as well as academic education, personal integrity, and community responsibility. Each student is also expected to adhere to the standards and expectations that are set by each course concerning collaboration, methods of research and data collection, and other practices relating to completion of course assignments and examinations.Each student is expected to become familiar with the conventions of academic writing. An important requirement of academic writing is to acknowledge one’s sources, including print and electronic resources, as well as any person who makes a contribution to an assignment. A serious violation of academic integrity is the use of another person’s language or ideas without acknowledgment and with the fraudulent assertion or impression that someone else’s language or ideas are one’s own. This violation, known as plagiarism, defeats the goal of intellectual integrity because it involves deceit, fraud, or theft. A student who plagiarizes is subject to the provisions of the Bentley Academic Integrity System.
Students who do not fully understand the rules and conventions for borrowing, citing, and documenting sources may unintentionally violate these rules or conventions. Instructors understand that an inadvertent violation may occur, for example when a student lacks experience with academic conventions or does not understand the meaning of words and ideas in a source well enough to paraphrase them properly. Students are expected to seek help in order to avoid such violations. It is the student’s responsibility to learn the conventions of academic writing as practiced in the United States and here at Bentley.Maintaining individual academic integrity. Manage your time effectively. Prepare early for deadlines and examinations to avoid the temptation to plagiarize or otherwise cheat.
Learn how to cite and acknowledge sources. Academic integrity entails carefully distinguishing the words and ideas of another person’s from one’s own and acknowledging the source. To learn conventions and procedures for proper citation and acknowledgment, consult an instructor, an English handbook, or a tutor at the Writing Center or ES0L Center. For updates on citing electronic sources, consult the Bentley Procedure for Citing Online Sources.
Prepare your own work. Letting someone else do your work for you defeats the purpose of education. Never hand in an assignment produced by someone else and present it as your own. Seek help to complete assignments only from sources approved by your instructor. When in doubt, consult the instructor for clarification before beginning the assignment. Prepare work that is original to a particular course. Never submit work completed for one course to satisfy the requirements of another course, even if the work has been modified, without written permission from each instructor.
Always be truthful and ethical. Never attempt to deceive your instructor. Never cheat on examinations. Never falsify a record or fabricate data or permit another person to do so. Never deliberately use improper or illicit means of acquiring or distributing data or material. Never sabotage other students’ work or prevent other students from having access to materials needed to complete course assignments. Protect yourself. Never let other students diminish the value of your achievement by taking unfair advantage. Never put yourself in a situation in which you might be suspected of violating academic integrity principles. Maintaining academic integrity across the Bentley community.
Each student, as an integral member of the academic community, is expected to make a commitment to act with academic integrity at all times and not to tolerate dishonesty on the part of other students. A student who is aware of a possible violation of the standards established in the Academic Integrity System should take appropriate action. A student who has violated the standards of academic integrity should report the violation to the instructor and/or the Academic Integrity Coordinator. A student who suspects another student of violating the standards of academic integrity should either (1) urge that person to report himself or (2) consult with the instructor or Academic Integrity Coordinator.
A student must respond promptly and honestly when informed of a suspected violation. A student must respond promptly and honestly to a request for information that may aid the resolution of an alleged violation.
Rights
A student charged with an academic integrity violation is entitled to:
An opportunity to ask the Academic Integrity Coordinator for a list of student support services.
An opportunity to respond to an alleged violation before the instructor/university official submits the Academic Integrity Report to the Academic Integrity Coordinator.
A fair Board hearing within a reasonable amount of time of the submission of an Academic Integrity Report to the Coordinator.
Ample notice of the hearing, a summary of the violation to be discussed, and an explanation of the hearing process.
Access to the Academic Integrity Coordinator to prepare for the hearing.
The opportunity to speak on his or her own behalf.
The presence of reviewed witnesses to give relevant and pertinent testimony.
The opportunity to hear all testimony presented in the hearing.
The opportunity to respond to all testimony presented in the hearing.
The presence of one person to provide support, who may not be an attorney (see Academic Board Hearings for further details).
Written notice, within a reasonable amount of time, of the Board’s findings and any sanctions.
The opportunity to appeal the decision of the Board.
