Close friends Kaitlin Howard and Lindsay Ward, both junior illustration majors, share many interests and activities, including classes. But they do not, as one of their professors suggested, share homework with each other.

Howard and Ward were asked to meet with their professor and the department head after class on Feb. 13. During the meeting, the professor claimed the handwriting on the first assignments they turned in appeared very similar, and she would need to see their notebooks to examine the handwriting, Howard said. Photocopies were taken of the handwriting in the notebooks.

‘She told us that she needed to make sure that there wasn’t anything going on,’ Howard said.

After examining the handwriting, the professor and department head both agreed that Howard and Ward had indeed each done their own work, Howard said. The department head told them that lately the professors had been told to be very strict about cheating and that all suspicions must be investigated.

Although they both apologized to the girls for the inconvenience, it was still a very awkward situation, Ward said.

‘There were only four of us in that room,’ Ward said. ‘It wasn’t announced to the class or anything, but it was still really humiliating.’

Incorrect cheating accusations could be prevented by establishing recommended academic integrity education efforts, uniform campus-wide academic integrity policies and procedures and the creation of an Academic Integrity Office, said Elletta Sangrey Callahan, the head of the Vice Chancellor and Provost Committee on Academic Integrity.

‘Uniform policy and procedures and support from the AIO are likely to decrease (wrongful accusations) from occurring,’ Callahan said.

The VCPAI committee headed by Callahan was commissioned by Deborah Freund, vice chancellor and provost.

‘I asked the group to see if we had problems, and if we did, how to solve them,’ Freund said.

When the committee researched academic integrity at Syracuse University, a dormant academic integrity problem was unearthed, Callahan said.

A staggering 74 percent of undergraduates said that they had engaged in academic dishonesty in the last year, according to the academic integrity survey in Jan. 2005 of both SU and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Of this 74 percent, 84 percent engaged in academic dishonesty more than once. The survey showed that many students are getting away with academic integrity violations, Callahan said.

Research also showed that there are currently 11 very different academic integrity policies on campus, since they varied from each of the colleges and schools, Callahan said. In comparing the policies, significant differences were found. She said this makes it confusing for students who take classes within various schools and colleges.

Freund gave the example of a student who was accused of an academic integrity violation in a class that was cross-listed, and it was handled two different ways for the exact same class.

Callahan said another difference is that five of the schools and colleges’ policies permit a student to be accompanied by a lawyer at proceedings, while six do not.

‘If we were a public university, this would be a denial of due process,’ she said.

There is immense variance in how the schools and colleges educate on academic integrity guidelines and procedures, Callahan said. Some schools and colleges simply give out handbooks with the information in them. Some have extensive programming, while others do nothing at all.

‘How to educate incoming students about expectations and standards is a tough question,’ said David Potter, associate dean of The College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the VCPAI committee.

Callahan said many professors, as well as students, do not completely understand current academic integrity policies and procedures.

‘Hardly anyone is well-educated about any of them,’ she said.

After researching academic integrity, the committee made its recommendations, which focused on five main components: education, policy, communication, record-keeping and the creation of the Academic Integrity Office.

The University Senate passed a motion on Feb. 15 approving the creation of the AIO. The recommendations including the creation of the AIO are now awaiting approval from Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Callahan said.

Members of the committee said they hope the recommendations will be approved, since academic integrity is so important.

‘I think (academic integrity) is at the core of the educational mission of a college,’ Callahan said. ‘If the objective is learning and you don’t learn, then it undermines the whole process.’

The AIO would help to keep in the communication and record-keeping components by keeping track of cheating violations so that students wouldn’t get by with lesser punishment on later offenses, Callahan said.

‘We need the office and its staff to help the entire university,’ said Potter, who initially entered the committee with the philosophy that each college and university should have its own policy. Serving on the committee changed his mind.

Having only one set of rules and procedures to know would help professors in cases of assumed academic integrity issues, Callahan said. The office would also give professors a place to go to with questions and concerns before they accused a student.

A junior sociology major who wishes to remain anonymous said she would hope that something would be done to keep professors from wrongly accusing students.

Last semester, a professor accused her of plagiarizing a discussion question that she had been assigned to create for class. The professor told her that her work was obviously not her own, she said.

‘She asked me, ‘Do you honestly expect me to believe that a girl like you could come up with the word ‘foreshadowing’ all on your own?” the student said. ‘I was dumbfounded.’

The student said despite her attempts to show the professor she had created the questions by herself, the professor would not budge from the accusations. The professor told her she would be gracious and not report her, but that she would receive a zero on the assignment. The student believes that the zero she received ultimately led to her B+ in the class, since she received low A’s on the rest of the assignments.

‘I think she was totally biased towards me,’ she said. ‘She told me she would be more inclined to believe me if I had showed more interest in her class, which was ironic because I always took part in class discussions.’

The student, who said that she ‘bawled’ in the professor’s office when she was accused, decided not to report the incident due to fear of a long process that could ultimately do more harm than good. She said that she consulted many people who warned her that it would be very hard to get the administration to believe her before a professor.

‘I was angry about the zero, but it wasn’t worth it to me to jeopardize my future,’ she said.

The anonymous student is not the only concerned person. SU professors and administrators agree with students that while academic integrity violations must be prosecuted, wrongful accusations can and should be avoided.

‘We aren’t interested in some kind of ‘gotcha’ game,’ Potter said. ‘On the other hand, academic integrity is the core value of a good academic institution.’ Potter said any student who feels unfairly accused should definitely appeal the decision.

‘Part of becoming a young adult is having hard choices to make,’ he said. ‘I would encourage anyone who thought they were wronged to use the (appeals) process.’

Samuel Gorovitz, head of the Renee Crown Honors Program, as well as a professor of philosophy, said he has seen many different cases of academic integrity violations throughout the years. A professor must consider all angles of the situation, he said.

‘It is very important to be completely open to the whole range of possibilities, to look at the full range of evidence,’ he said. ‘The single most important thing is to know the student.’

Gorovitz, who once hired a handwriting expert to advise on a case, said though a lot of handwriting is similar, very rarely is it exactly the same.

‘There are subtle markers to look for,’ he said. ‘You have to be open-minded and understand that some handwriting may be similar.’

Ward agrees with the SU faculty. She said while she understands suspicions must be followed through, the incident made her feel as if she had done something wrong even though she hadn’t.

‘As much as it is understandable, it’s almost insulting because I am someone who is working hard,’ Ward said. ‘I would never even contemplate something like that.’

Published on February 23, 2006 at 12:00 pm