The Skidmore Honor Code
I hereby accept membership in
the Skidmore College community and, with full realization of the responsibilities
inherent in membership, do agree to adhere to honesty and integrity in
all relationships, to be considerate of the rights of others, and to abide
by the College regulations.
-- (from College Catalog, Ch. 7)
All members of the Skidmore College
community, including students, faculty, and staff, are parties to the honor
contract and are expected to abide by its provisions. The Honor Code covers
all aspects of integrity, whether academic or social; the Student Handbook
attends particularly to codes of social behavior and outlines the college
judicial system and procedures; both the Student Handbook and the Academic
Information Guide define academic integrity regulations. Every Skidmore
student is required by the Honor Code to become thoroughly conversant with
the standards of academic and social integrity that prevail at the College.
The Academic Integrity Board, Social Integrity Board, and Board of Review
will not regard claims of ignorance, of unintentional error, and of academic
or personal pressures as an adequate defense for violations of the Honor
Code.
Academic Integrity
Because the College functions
as a tightly integrated community of curricular and cocurricular experiences,
a strict allegiance to its standards of conduct is essential for every student's
well-being and intellectual growth. Students should make certain they understand
the high value Skidmore places on honesty, cooperation, and consideration,
and the penalties the College imposes for infractions in these areas. Skidmore
not only promotes intellectual honesty vigorously but severely punishes
such offenses as plagiarism and cheating on exams. Any Honor Code violation
may affect the student's graduate school or transfer recommendations and
the student's eligibility for memberships in Periclean or Phi Kappa.
Social Integrity
The Basic College Regulations
outlined in the Student Handbook are considered vital to community welfare,
student safety, and high standards of moral and social integrity. The list
of regulations is not exhaustive. In all areas of Skidmore life, members
are expected to conform to high standards of fair play, integrity, and honor.
Careless abuses and violations of these regulations are considered major
breaches of the College Honor Code and may involve the withdrawal of the
privilege of membership in the Skidmore College community. In addition to
these Basic College Regulations, the actions of members of the College community
are governed by and subject to the laws and ordinances of the local, state,
and federal governments.
Applying the Honor Code to
Usenet News
The open and frank discussion
of controversial ideas is central to a healthy academic community. All members
of the community must have safe and secure forums where they can explore
and debate ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect and consideration.
The College does not censor
the content of newsgroup postings, but it does reserve the right to restrict
conduct that is damaging to the free exploration of ideas by all members
of the Usenet news community. When reviewing complaints concerning news
postings, it will attempt to ignore the content of the articles, but will
review the conduct demonstrated by the postings within the traditions
for each specific newsgroup.
Some examples of inappropriate
conduct:
- Broadcasting
- You may not broadcast your
messages to large numbers of newsgroups, without regard to the relevance
of your material to the charter for that group.
- Substantial
disruption
- Messages or other conduct
that are intended to suppress or disrupt debate is not permitted.
- Sabotage
- Messages that are designed
to interfere with correct news operation.
- Fraud
- Messages that deliberately
misrepresent yourself or your authority.
- Illegal
activities
- Messages that violate other
college, local, state or federal regulations. This includes software
piracy, copyright violations, and theft of services.
Implementation Procedure
Complaint Response
Complaints about inappropriate
news conduct most commonly originate in the form of electronic mail messages
from either local or remote users. They may also originate from local individuals
or from IT staff as part of their routine news reading
Under normal circumstances,
the following steps will be followed when responding to complaints alleging
inappropriate conduct by a local news poster:
- Notification of problem
IT will promptly notify
both the poster and the complainer of the College's policies as described
in this document. It reviews copies of any relevant news postings
to determine whether there is sufficient cause to continue investigation.
- Attempt informal resolution
IT will discuss the
complaint with the poster. This conversation may take place via personal
meeting, telephone, or electronic mail. The purpose of this informal
discussion is to determine whether inappropriate activity might have
taken place and, if necessary, educate the offender concerning correct
conduct.
- Formal action
Formal action is taken
only in apparent instances of extreme violation or when the offender
demonstrates repeated lack of conformance to local standards. Wherever
possible, the College will attempt to reconcile the problem through
education and consultation.
When formal action is
necessary, the complaint is forwarded to the appropriate campus disciplinary
committee. That group will review the complaint according to its standard
operating procedures.
The major disciplinary
committees are:
- Committee on Academic
Freedom and Rights -- for complaints concerning faculty/staff.
- Academic Integrity Board
-- for course-related complaints about students
- Social Integrity Board
-- for non-academic complaints about students
The campus disciplinary
committee decides whether disciplinary action is warranted and selects
the suitable corrective action according to its standard operating
procedures. IT does not take independent action, nor does it initiate
punishments without authorization by the appropriate disciplinary
committee.
Emergency actions
IT may take emergency corrective
actions in situations where extreme circumstances do not permit the normal
review procedure described above. In these situations, it will attempt to
take the minimal action necessary to maintain stable services.
In such emergencies, it must
promptly consult with the appropriate campus disciplinary committee for
confirmation of both the urgency of the problem and the appropriateness
of its corrective action. Should the disciplinary committee disagree,
IT will promptly reverse whatever emergency actions that had been taken.
Other policies concerning
News
Prescanning of News is not
permitted
The College does not pre-scan
individual locally-written postings before they appear in news. This applies
both as a general operating practice and in response to specific complaints.
Privacy
All news postings are considered
public items that are not subject to any form of privacy protection.
Copyright
An individual may opt to copyright
the material he or she posts in Usenet news. In general, most participants
in Usenet News ignore the copyright when posting articles that quote or
cite previous postings. On the other hand, the existence of such a copyright
would require you to secure permission before including that material in
other forms of publication.
Regardless of whether an item
may be copyrighted, the traditions of academic integrity require that
you not misrepresent other people's postings as your work and require
that you cite the original author when quoting news postings within your
work.
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