Academic Dishonesty

I know you are all aware of Wellesley's honor code and its policies concerning academic honesty. Wellesley is quite serious about honesty, and so am I. The rest of this document is long and seems to imply that I'm really suspicious of students, constantly looking to catch them being dishonest. I'm not. I believe most students are honest, and they just want to know what's acceptable and what isn't.

General Guidelines

Few students intentionally cheat, and when they do, it's unambiguous: wholesale copying of someone else's work. I hardly need to remind you not to do that. In general, make sure your work is your own.

The difficulty comes in "working together" with someone, or asking for assistance. I expect students to help one another in understanding the course material, in understanding what is expected in an assignment, and so forth. But there is a limit, because learning requires grappling with the hard work of actually doing a problem, whether a calculation, a proof, a design, or a program. It could even be as simple as going through the sequence of mouse clicks to accomplish something in a Windows or Mac application. If someone else does it for you, with you just watching, you learn very little.

You may learn from one another, but you may not "collaborate" to the extent that one person is getting the answer from another. There are gray areas where one of these merges with the other; a few scenarios are discussed below. Finding that dividing line can be subtle, but the best distinction is whether you could ask me that same question and get an answer, or whether you could "collaborate" in the same way with me.

If you're very confused about something, and you need a lot of help, do not ask a classmate. Ask me or, if the course has one, the teaching assistant. It is our responsibility to try to help you, but it is your responsibility to seek help from us when you need it.

One consequence of this is that you can't wait to the last minute to work on something, because if you do, you may not be able to ask a question in time. Unless you are very certain that you know how to do something, you should start it early. I think some students end up cheating just because of an inability to accept the consequences of procrastination.

Rules

Here are some rules to keep in mind.

My Penalties

I understand that sometimes a student may be confused about how much collaboration is too much. If I tell you that you have collaborated too much on an assignment, you should take this as a very serious warning. You should avoid collaborating at all with that other person for a little while.

If I feel that a student has clearly stepped over the line on a homework or programming assignment, but that the violation is not sufficient to warrant bringing the matter to the attention of the Academic Dean, I will give that student a -100 on the assignment. Note that this is a severe penalty, much worse than not doing the assignment. Therefore, if, for whatever reason, you think you cannot do an assignment, it is far better and safer to either turn in nothing and get a zero, or turn in something and get partial credit, than to copy someone else's work and get -100. If you feel you have been wrongly penalized, you may appeal to the department chair.

Finally, you should realize that the single most valuable thing that you lose when you cheat is your reputation. I assume that Wellesley students are honest, and I treat them as such. If I know you are a cheater, you lose any such respect. Furthermore, I will not ever recommend a cheater for any scholarship, internship, job, honor or award, and that includes any letters of recommendation. I have to protect Wellesley's reputation and my own.

Protecting Yourself

Obviously, a sensible, honest student will want to protect herself from even the appearance of dishonesty. Here are some things you can do:

Scenarios

Here are some scenarios that may help to distinguish between acceptable help or collaboration, and unacceptable cheating. If you can think of any other borderline scenarios, please discuss them with me, so that I can add them. It will help everyone.
Scott D. Anderson
Last modified: Tuesday, August 29, 2000