Honor Pledge and Academic Honesty
At Molloy University, all students are required to uphold our Academic Honor Pledge. Molloy has serious consequences for violations of academic integrity.
Expectations of Academic Integrity for All Students:
Engaging in any form of academic dishonesty is an academic infraction subject to referral to the student conduct process. Students will be held accountable for infractions regarding cheating, plagiarism, facilitating academic dishonesty, falsifying documents, and fabrication. The consequences for such behavior include, but are not limited to, participating in an interactive online academic integrity course with a written final paper, suspension, or dismissal. The faculty may also impose a penalty on your course grade.
Academic infractions include but are not limited to:
(From the Molloy University Student Handbook)
1. Cheating – utilizing an unauthorized source other than self during an exam, in completing an assignment, or during a take home academic exercise. Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to:
a. Copying from a peer or an unauthorized source during an academic exercise or willingly allowing another to copy your work.
b. Unauthorized collaboration on homework, assignments, or examinations.
c. Obtaining and/or using an unauthorized test, examination, quiz, etc. prior to its administration.
2. Fabrication – intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information.
3. Facilitating academic dishonesty – includes, among other things, intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help someone commit an act of academic dishonesty. For example, allowing another to copy from you during an examination, doing work for another and allowing her/him to represent it as her/his own, and supplying information regarding examinations to others.
4. Plagiarism – includes, among other things, failure to document the direct words of another or the rephrasing of another’s words so as to represent them as one’s own; handing in another’s paper or project as one’s own; or reusing substantial portions of a previously done assignment in response to a current assignment, without first obtaining approval for same from the faculty. It is irrelevant whether the theft was intentional and deliberate or accidental.
Artificial Intelligence is a form of Plagiarism - There has been a significant increase in the popularity and availability of a variety of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including ChatGPT, Sudowrite, Bard, and others. These tools will help shape the future of work, research, and technology, but when used in the wrong way, they can stand in conflict with academic integrity guidelines at Molloy University.
All students have important obligations and expectations on behavior, as detailed in the Student Handbooks, to complete all academic and scholarly activities with fairness and honesty. Our professional students also have the responsibility to uphold the professional and ethical standards found in their respective academic honor codes. Specifically, students are not to use “unauthorized assistance in the laboratory, on fieldwork, in scholarship, or on a course assignment” unless such assistance has been authorized specifically by the course faculty member. In addition, students are not to submit their work without acknowledging any word-for-word use and/or paraphrasing” of writing, ideas, or other work that is not your own.
To maintain a culture of integrity and respect, these generative AI tools should not be used in the completion of course assignments unless a faculty member for a given course specifically authorizes their use. Some faculty may approve of using generative AI tools in the academic setting for specific goals. However, these tools should be used only with the explicit and clear permission of each individual faculty, and then only in the ways allowed by the faculty.”
5. Falsifying Documents – includes, among other things, forging signatures of authorization, falsifying information on any official academic records, etc.
Students are responsible for knowing the policies regarding cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and fabrication, as well as the penalties for such behavior. Academic integrity is expected in all learning modalities, whether online, hybrid, or in-person. For more details, please refer to the Student Handbooks.
Reports of a possible infraction of Molloy’s Academic Integrity policies are referred to the Dean of Students Office for investigation using this online report form. Faculty and students can direct questions to deanofstudents@molloy.edu.