Approved by the Ithaca College Board of Trustees February 11, 1994.

  1. Academic honesty is a cornerstone of the mission of the College. Unless it is otherwise stipulated, students may submit for evaluation only that work that is their own and that is submitted originally for a specific course. According to traditions of higher education, forms of conduct that will be considered evidence of academic misconduct include but are not limited to the following:
  • conversations between students during an examination;
  • reviewing, without authorization, material during an examination (e.g., personal notes, another student's exam, online or other electronic information);
  • unauthorized collaboration [see further details related to the use of generative artificial intelligence below];
  • submission of a paper also submitted for a grade/credit in another course without the full knowledge and explicit consent of all the faculty members involved;
  • reference to written material related to the course brought into an examination room during a closed-book, written examination;
  • submission without proper acknowledgment of work that is based partially or entirely on the ideas or writings of others;
  • handing in to a class an assignment or exam produced by another person or agent; and/or
  • having another person or agent rewrite or clean up a rough draft of the assignment and submitting those revisions as one’s own work.
  1. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the application of AI technologies that utilize machine learning models to create new and original content or augment existing content. Generative AI can generate content such as text, images, music, and computer code by recognizing patterns and learning from existing data gathered from the internet.
  2. Generative AI has the potential to enhance the learning experience, support students and educators, and promote accessibility to knowledge. It can also be used by students to complete assignments and such use of generative AI may violate our standards of academic conduct as defined above.
  3. Individual course instructors are free to set their own policies regulating the use of generative AI tools in their courses, including allowing or disallowing some or all uses of such tools. Course instructors should set such policies in their course syllabi and clearly communicate such policies to students. Students who are unsure of policies regarding generative AI tools are encouraged to ask their instructors for clarification.
  4. Absent a clear statement from a course instructor, use of or consultation with generative AI shall be treated analogously to assistance from another person. Using generative AI tools to substantially complete an assignment or exam (e.g., by entering exam or assignment questions in an AI chat or search) is not permitted. Students should acknowledge the use of generative AI (other than incidental use) and default to disclosing such assistance when in doubt.
  5. It is the responsibility of instructors to inform students clearly in writing specific rules, procedures, and/or expectations pertinent to their particular course that differ from those identified in of this section. In those courses where limited consultation among students is permitted in the preparation of assignments, it is extremely important for instructors to clarify the guidelines for appropriate conduct.

  6. In situations where a student may have difficulty in distinguishing between acceptable behavior and academic misconduct, it is the responsibility of the student to confer with the instructor. This is particularly important for avoiding plagiarism when written sources are used in the preparation of papers or take home examinations.

    Because Ithaca College is an academic community, ignorance of the accepted standards of academic honesty in no way affects the responsibility of students who violate standards of conduct in courses and other academic activities.

  7. These offenses violate the atmosphere of trust and mutual respect necessary for the process of learning.
  8. All members of the academic community are expected to assist in maintaining the integrity of Ithaca College, which includes reporting incidents of academic misconduct. Such instances may be reported to a faculty member, the dean of the school involved, or the director of judicial affairs.

Note: Students who would like help in learning how to paraphrase or document sources properly should feel free to come to the Writing Center for assistance.


7.1.4.1 Plagiarism

As amended by the Ithaca College Board of Trustees May 18, 2001.

Whether intended or not, plagiarism is a serious offense against academic honesty. Under any circumstances, it is deceitful to represent as one's own work, writing or ideas that belong to another person. Students should be aware of how this offense is defined. Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else's published or unpublished ideas, whether this use consists of directly quoted material or paraphrased ideas.

Although various disciplines follow styles of documentation that differ in some details, all forms of documentation make the following demands:

  • That each quotation or paraphrase be acknowledged with a footnote or in-text citation;
  • That direct quotations be enclosed in quotation marks and be absolutely faithful to the wording of the source;
  • That paraphrased ideas be stated in language entirely different from the language of the source;
  • That a sequence of ideas identical to that of a source be attributed to that source;
  • That sources of reprinted charts or graphs be cited in the text;
  • That all the sources the writer has drawn from in paraphrase or direct quotation or a combination of paraphrase and quotation be listed at the end of the paper under "Bibliography," "References," or "Works Cited," whichever heading the particular style of documentation requires.

A student is guilty of plagiarism if the student fails, intentionally or not, to follow any of these standard requirements of documentation.

In a collaborative project, all students in a group may be held responsible for academic misconduct if they engage in plagiarism or are aware of plagiarism by others in their group and fail to report it. Students who participate in a collaborative project in which plagiarism has occurred will not be held accountable if they were not knowledgeable of the plagiarism.

What, then, do students not have to document? They need not cite their own ideas, or references to their own experiences, or information that falls in the category of uncontroversial common knowledge (what a person reasonably well-informed about a subject might be expected to know). They should acknowledge anything else.

Last Updated: February 13, 2024