Other faculties experience a decrease in academic honesty cases
A sharp increase in academic honesty cases within the Faculty of Fine Arts from the previous year, and a decrease in other faculties, was among issues discussed at the January 24 Senate meeting.
In 2010-2011, the Faculty of Fine Arts saw 19 academic honesty cases, with the number rising to 49 cases the following year.
Barbara Sellers-Young, dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, says there are several possible factors contributing to an increase in the number of reported academic honesty cases in a given year.
“For example, sometimes, incoming students may be less aware of university expectations for academic writing with regard to citation requirements than in the previous year,” says Sellers-Young.
Determined by the York Senate, academic honesty is divided into five categories: cheating, impersonation, aiding and abetting, collusion, and fabrication and falsification.
Rhonda Lenton, vp academic and provost, says all students are obligated to know York’s academic integrity rules. York’s Senate policy on academic honesty is posted online, in the student handbook, and often printed in course syllabi and there is also an online academic integrity tutorial available.
“If the student breaks a rule and says ‘I didn’t know that,’ not knowing the rule is not a good excuse,” Lenton says.
Fourth-year visual arts major Rebecca Morton recalls receiving an ‘F’ in a course after one of her professors said the written assignment didn’t sound like her work.
“It was an essay, and it was an opinion piece as well, so it was my opinion that I was writing, but the professor said parts of [the assignment] just didn’t sound like me,” says Morton. “So as a result of that, I didn’t get a mark for a while.”
In total, all other faculties, except fine arts, experienced a drop in cases of academic honesty.
The total number of academic honesty cases across all faculties was 498 for the 2011 to 2012 academic session—a decrease from the 515 cases in the previous academic session.
Students caught breaking academic honesty policies may face different consequences depending on how many times they have breached the policies in the past.
“As per senate policy, when considering the circumstances of a case, the penalty for a first offence is often designed to be more educative than punitive,” says Sellers-Young.
If a student is accused of academic dishonesty, they may be required, for example, to provide proof that they’ve sought help in academic writing from the LAPS writing department, or that they’ve taken the online academic integrity tutorial “with the clear understanding that a second or third offence will not be treated as leniently,” says Sellers-Young.
Each academic honesty case is investigated, explains Sellers-Young, adding that academic honesty may have occurred as a result of poor academic writing skills, and not malicious intent.
“What we hope is that when students leave, they will transfer the proper academic honesty to their career and goals and apply it to their professional ethics and honesty,” says Lenton.
Hamid Adem, Assistant News Editor
