All members of the faculty have a responsibility to foster the intellectual honesty as well as the intellectual development of students. They should carefully scrutinize their methods of teaching and assignments in order to be sure that they encourage students to be honest. If necessary, the faculty member should explain clearly the meaning of cheating and plagiarism as they apply in the context of specific courses.
The following suggestions and comments should be applied by instructors in order to minimize the incidence of cheating:
- Insure security of examinations while they are being prepared.
- Provide for adequate and thorough proctoring of examinations.
- Consider the possibility that students may have the teacher's guide to the texts currently being used.
- Require arbitrary seating of students at examinations so as to break up pre-arranged groups.
- Avoid the use of the same form of an examination for succeeding sections and for makeup examinations.
- A request for an incomplete may be considered a form of cheating when it is used to avoid low grades and protect grade averages. A common approach is to request an incomplete when grades are low, and then persuade the instructor to remove the incomplete with a grade of W. The campus policy is that a student must be passing the course and must have completed a majority of the work in the course to receive a grade of I. If those conditions are met, award of the grade of I is at the instructor’s discretion. See section D-6 below for the policy on I grades.
Should the faculty member detect signs of plagiarism or cheating, it is a most serious obligation to investigate these thoroughly and to take appropriate action as discussed in the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct and in the IU Southeast Code Procedures document found at the Office of Student Affairs website. Students' attention should be called to these policies and procedures.