A new academic policy may soon be implemented at Mississippi State that penalizes cheating by indicating the dishonesty on the student’s transcript.
The newly-formed Academic Integrity Assessment Committee has been meeting since last spring to discuss a proposed new honor code, vice president of student affairs Bill Kibler said.
The committee includes administrators, faculty and students to gather input from a wide spectrum of people.
“We need to take a step back and look at how students view academic integrity,” Kibler said.
“I think this is a problem that all universities face and will cause us to be more proactive. We’re teaching academic integrity,” dean of students Mike White said. “We’re trying to raise the level of consciousness of the students here.”
Academic dishonesty has been a serious problem at MSU in the past, Kibler said. The current system of dealing with offenders has been viewed as lacking consistency.
The current system being used took effect during summer school of 2001. It mandates that the instructor has the right to handle academic dishonesty within his own class on the first instance, and students are allowed to appeal this ruling. Subsequent violations would currently be handled by the Academic Dishonesty Committee, headed by Brian Baldwin.
Baldwin has the power to expel the offender, the committee’s Web site says.
The current system, however, does mandate that instructors make a reference to the university’s academic dishonesty policy in their syllabus and discuss the policy during the first day of class, associate professor Brian Baldwin said.
The new proposal aims at reducing cheating and implementing severe consequences for offenders. A hallmark of the proposed system would be flagging students who fail a course due to academic dishonesty.
The offender would have a “XF” letter designation on his or her transcript instead of an “F.” The committee is alsoconsidering a new honor code to be implemented for the university. “The new proposal aims at making each student responsible for their own actions,” Baldwin said.
Another aspect would be an intervention program that offenders would have to take as a consequence of academic dishonesty. Upon successful completion of the course the student could appeal to have the “XF” removed and replaced with the “F” grade.
“The student can get the X removed by doing certain things. There would be some time frame,” White said.
The committee is also considering making the Web site www.turnitin.com available for students. The site allows students to submit papers where they will be cross-checked against a database for elements of plagiarism.
Undeclared freshman Vic Neisler said he disagrees with the proposal because it is inconsiderate of students.
“Students are already punished enough for their mistakes,” Neisler said. “Why make it harder on them to start over?”
Neisler said he thinks the additional measures are unnecessary and unreasonable.
Baldwin said that the proposal was still under consideration within the committee and are subject to change. White agrees.
“I think we’re ready to move it forward and begin the process, even though there will be several processes we have to go through to make it an official policy,” White said.