Office of Student Conduct/Department of Philosophy Seminar in Academic
Integrity
2:00 – 4:00 p.m./OSC Conference Room
Dr. Nancy Stanlick (stanlick@mail.ucf.edu)
ASSIGNMENT 1: Your Perceptions of Your Own Case (For this one, if you don’t want to discuss YOUR OWN individual case, then take into consideration a hypothetical case [for example, slugging another student for sneaking a peek at your midterm exam questions, which resulted in your being accused of cheating].)
Check one of these:
____________ I am referring in my answers in ASSIGNMENT 1 to the actual reason that I am attending this seminar.
____________I am referring in my answers in ASSIGNMENT 1 to a hypothetical case that might lead someone to be required to take this seminar.
Assignment 2: An "F" on your English composition paper
Professor X, who teaches in the English Department at a very large state university, has assigned a paper for her freshman composition class. She tells the students that these are the requirements for the paper. First, it must be of significant length. Second, it must have standard margins and standard sized-font. Third, you must use MLA format. Fourth, the paper has to be about some aspect of course content. Fifth, it is due on the last day of classes.
You rarely go to class because it meets at 8:00 a.m. three days a week (MWF) and you work most weekdays until 2:00 a.m. You show up for exams, quizzes, and tests (there are 6 in total, including the final exam), which are all listed by date in the syllabus. But these and 3 other days in the term (the first day, one day in October, and another in November) are the only days you attend the class. You submit your paper on the last day of classes (the Tuesday before final exams start on Wednesday) by giving it to your roommate, a very reliable person you know you can trust, who drops it off for you at the professor's office.
When you show up for the final exam, your paper is returned to you with an "F" at the top. The professor has written a note on the first page of your paper indicating that you didn't follow the instructions. Your paper is too short, you used the wrong size font, you did not use MLA format, and your topic is too broad. Further, you submitted it late.
You complain to the professor about the grade. She refuses to change it. Who is responsible for the "F"? Why?
Write a brief justification of your position regarding this case.
Assignment 3: The UCF Golden Rule
Using one of the ethical theories discussed/listed in the syllabus, explain the ways in which some person or some aspect of the case described in Assignment 2 violates the UCF Golden Rule.
Assignment 4: Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty (Cheating and Plagiarism), or personal integrity
Using a scale of 1-5, where 5 is the most serious/bad and 1 is the least serious, please indicate, for each of the following, what you think of them as instances of academic dishonesty or violations of academic or personal integrity. If you think that something is not academically dishonest or not a violation of academic or personal integrity, use “0”. You can use each number more than once.
_____1. You and another person in your American History course are assigned to do a presentation on the Civil War. Your research partner, however, is not very bright (or at least you don’t think he is). So instead of taking a chance on having him “mess up” your grade for the course, you tell him that you will do all the research and the presentation, but that you will tell the professor that both of you agreed to split up the work so that he would do the research and you would do the presentation. The professor does not know any different, and never finds out the truth. You and your research partner each get a “C.”
_____2. You are completely prepared for a major test in your Political Science class. Unfortunately, you misunderstood the syllabus and studied the wrong chapters. When you sit down to take the test and realize that you read and studied all the wrong things, you become agitated, throw the test down in front of the professor, and refer to him by an ugly name, yelling as you leave that he is an incompetent boob for not writing a clearer syllabus.
_____3. You have been drinking on a Saturday night at a bar across the street from campus. You live on campus. You decide to drive your car back to the parking lot at your apartment on campus, thinking that because it’s only across the street, it’s no big deal. You are arrested for DUI.
_____4. You have a serious migraine headache, but have run out of the prescription medication that you normally take for it. Your roommate has a similar prescription medication, so you take one from the medicine cabinet that you share. Your headache is gone in a few hours.
_____5. Your roommate has a stash of some kind of illicit drug in his room in the apartment that you share. In fact, his stash of the stuff is huge. But it’s not yours, and you don’t take drugs. You figure it is none of your business. You and your roommate are arrested for possession.
_____6. A girl/guy that you just met at a party is rip-roaring drunk. You have had a few, but are not impaired. You ask your new friend whether she/he would like to party a bit in your room. Your new friend says yes. The next morning, your new friend accuses you of sexual assault, claiming that she/he could not have knowingly consented to sexual activity and you took advantage of her/him.
_____7. Your professor refuses to change your grade on an exam even though you have proof that it was graded improperly by the machine that does scantrons. Even after pleading with the professor, she continues to refuse to change the grade. You call her a *(*^%@, and storm out of her office.