Office of Student Conduct/Department of Philosophy
Seminar in Academic Integrity
February 26, 2007
1.
Attendance
2. Description and Objective: This seminar is an overview of practical ethical issues involved with academic integrity and student conduct relevant to violations of the UCF Golden Rule and the UCF Creed, or any violation of university policy consistent with attendance in this course. It includes discussion of one or more major ethical theories or orientations as they relate to particular cases of moral action and decision making. Discussion includes academic dishonesty, cheating and plagiarism, and academic and personal integrity broadly construed. Specific moral issues may include moral responsibility, obligations to oneself and to others, and the relationship of the individual to the community.
a. There are three multiple-part assignments:
i. An in-class 3-part assignment (distributed during the seminar)
ii. A document with 4 brief assignments (online, see link below)
iii. The evaluation of this seminar (see link below).
3. Moral Rules and Personal Obligations – discussion with examples
a. A common list of rules
i. 10 Cs
b. An example of the problem of responsibility
At about 7:15 p.m., Joe and
Jane are walking through the mall on their way to the theatre, which is
situated near the food court in the middle of the mall. They are running late
and know that the line to get tickets is always long. This is
the last night that Joe and Jane will be able to go out together for quite some
time. She is being deployed to
As they pass the coffee shop
at the corner of the food court, they hear and see a child of about 3 years old
crying uncontrollably, yelling for his mother. He is obviously lost. People
pass by the little boy, paying very little attention to him. Joe and Jane look
at him, then look around to see whether his mother is
nearby. No one is standing near him. Yes, he is definitely lost.
Outside in the parking lot, the little
boy's mother is waving frantically to a mall security guard. She explains to
him that her son wandered away while she was putting a younger child, a little
girl, in the car seat. She turned her back only for a minute to secure the seat
belts on the car seat. The security guard and the child's mother proceed to
look through the parking lot for him while waiting for the local police to
arrive.
Joe and Jane continue
walking to the theatre and forget about the crying child. They watch the movie
and leave the theatre later that evening. At home, they turn on the news and
hear that a 3-year old boy was kidnapped from the mall earlier that evening. He
had wandered away from his mother while she was putting his younger sister in
the car seat in the parking lot as they were preparing to leave the mall. The
boy's mother explained that he wanted ice cream and must have gone back into
the mall while she was tending to the other child.
The mall security camera
shows an image of an unidentified woman taking the little boy by the hand and
leading him out the opposite entrance to the food court of the mall. The time
on the tape shows 7:17 p.m.
According to the news story,
a search is underway for the child.
Joe and Jane recognize the
boy in the security video as the same one they passed by while on their way to
the theatre.
Who is responsible for the
kidnapping?
In-class assignments will be distributed.
4. Moral Theories
a. Utilitarianism: see http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Utilitarianism/
b. Deontology – see http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Kant/
c. Virtue Ethics – see http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Aristotle/
d. Egoism – see http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Egoism/
5. Cheating and Plagiarism
a. What’s the difference?
i. Factual
ii. Moral
b. Avoiding Plagiarism
i. http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html
ii. http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_home.html
6.
Go to the
assignments page at http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~stanlick/OSCFeb262007Assignments.htm
. To save the file, go to “File,” then
“Save as,” and give the document a name.
It will save as a web page, and you can edit in inside Word or some
other program like it. The assignments
are due at 4:00 p.m. one week from the day of the meeting of the seminar. Please make sure that you name the document
something like “SmithAssignments” (put your last name
in, of course) to ensure that it is received and catalogued properly. Send
to stanlick@mail.ucf.edu .
7.
Go to the
seminar evaluation form at: http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~stanlick/AcadIntegEvalForm.doc
or http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~stanlick/AcadIntegEvalForm.htm
. To save the file, go to “File,” then
“Save as,” and give it a name. If you do
this for the second link (with the .htm extension),
it will save as a web page, and you can edit inside Word or some other program
like it. Please make sure that you give
the document a name – something like “SmithEvaluation”
(put your own last name in, of course) to ensure that it is received and
catalogued properly. Send to stanlick@mail.ucf.edu . This is also due at 4:00 p.m. one week from
the day of the meeting of the seminar.
Send to stanlick@mail.ucf.edu
.