Academic Integrity

An increase in reports of cheating on University and College campuses has raised awareness of the problem among faculty and administrators. Some recent publications have provided the following statistics:

• At the University of Virginia, 122 students were accused of cheating on term papers in introductory physics; half may face expulsion or loss of degrees awarded in earlier years (Schemo A:1).
• A USA Today article reported that occurrences of academic dishonesty at the University of California-Berkeley doubled between 1995 and 1999. ("Cheating").
• A study by the Center for Academic Integrity found that almost 75 percent of college students own up to some form of academic dishonesty ("CAI").
• A neurobiology professor at the University of California-Berkeley found that 45 of 320 students in his class had plagiarized at least part of their term paper from the Internet (Kopytoff G:7).

Lewis & Clark College wants to remind its students that the academic community expects both students and faculty to adhere to the fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Academic integrity requires not only avoiding dishonest behaviors, but also the conscious intent to practice the intellectual honesty that supports our academic system.