Academic Policies
Assignments that include any plagiarism will receive a zero. Students engaging in repeated instances of plagiarism will fail the course outright and will be remanded to the College for disciplinary action.
A variety of accommodations are available to students with disabilities, and tutoring is available to students seeking help.
Listed below are various official school policies included in all Lehman College syllabi, with clarifications relating to this course as required. You are responsible for this information and for all information in this syllabus.
- Attendance Policy
- Accommodating Disabilities
- Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy
- Technology and Blackboard Information
- Instructional Support Services (ISSP)
- Writing-Intensive Course Requirements
- Student Handbook
Attendance Policy
Student handbook notes that “Students are expected to attend all class meetings as scheduled, and are responsible for all class work missed as a result of late registration or absence. Excessive absences in any course may result in a lower final grade.”
- Participation in online discussion is a required part of the course. Missing classes will damage your grade.
- Textbooks are designed to give you the basics; in our class meetings we try to make sense of things, and sift out what’s important. Missing classes means you miss out on a key part of our trying to put things together.
- If you miss quizzes, it will put a big crimp in your grade for the course. Quizzes are not made up, so the quizzes you miss will count against you.
- Religious observances that affect your class attendance should be discussed in advance.
Accommodating Disabilities
Lehman College is committed to providing access to all programs and curricula to all students. Students with disabilities who may require any special considerations should register with the Office of Student Disability Services in order to submit official paperwork to instructor.
- Office of Student Disability Services: Shuster Hall, Room 238, 718-960-8441.
- Student Disability Services: http://www.lehman.edu/student-disability-services/
- Email: disability.services@lehman.cuny.edu.
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy
What counts as plagiarism?
Here is CUNY’s official definition of plagiarism:
- Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. The following are some examples of plagiarism, but by no means is it an exhaustive list:
- Copying another person’s actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source.
- Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without noting the source.
- Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source.
- Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.
- Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers; paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source; and “cutting & pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.
Key points
Use of writing or ideas. The key phrase is right up front in the definition: “another person’s ideas”. Copying and pasting from another source without attribution is plagiarism, but so is using someone’s ideas even if they’re reworded. Plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s work and presenting it as your own, under your name.
What is an essay? When you present an academic essay, it’s an act that says, “This is what I think. These are the conclusions I have drawn from studying this issue.” An essay is your assessment of a subject, and the ideas in it are presented as your ideas, with any ideas not your own carefully footnoted and clearly segregated so it’s clear what is your analysis and what is evidence drawn from primary or secondary sources.
Paraphrasing. Paraphrasing or putting things into your own words does not alter the use of someone else’s ideas as your own. Here’s why. If the phrase appearing in an essay written by someone else is, for example, “To apply this type of painting to residential interiors was a Roman idea”, and in your essay it’s reworded as “it was the Romans who applied this type of painting method to home walls”, it doesn’t change the fact that someone else’s ideas are being presented as if they were your own, as if those ideas originated in your own mind. It’s still intellectual dishonesty.
Citations. All information from any source you use must have a citation, period. This is true whether it’s a direct quote, a paraphrase, or just an idea you’re talking about that came from the source you used. For more information on citations, please see the section on citations and bibliographies in the Elephant Pamphlet (pages 13-19).
Self-plagiarism. Reusing writing you’ve previously submitted for credit, in order to get credit for it a second time, is a form of academic dishonesty known as “self-plagiarism.” For example, if you retake a course, you may not submit a paper, or parts of that paper, that you previously submitted for credit the first time you took the course for the same assignment the second time you take that course. You must write a different paper consisting of new material for the submission the second time around. Similarly, if you wrote a paper for course A, and course B has a similar assignment, you may not submit that paper, or parts of that paper, for the similar assignment for course B. You must write a different paper consisting of new material for course B.
CUNY plagiarism policy
“Academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York. Penalties for academic dishonesty include academic sanctions, such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion.” All violations are reported to the Department and Lehman College’s Academic Integrity Officer.
Policy for this course
Lehman College is committed to the highest standards of academic honesty.
Acts of academic dishonesty include—but are not limited to—plagiarism (in drafts, outlines, and examinations, as well as final papers), cheating, bribery, academic fraud, sabotage of research materials, the sale of academic papers, and the falsification of records. An individual who engages in these or related activities or who knowingly aids another who engages in them is acting in an academically dishonest manner and will be subject to disciplinary action.
Plagiarism includes the incorporation of any material that is not original with you without attribution, whether from a book, article, web site, or fellow student, in any paper or assignment.
Assignments that include any plagiarism will receive a zero and the offending student will be subject to additional action by the College. Students engaging in repeated instances of plagiarism will fail the course outright and will be remanded to the College for disciplinary action.
- For detailed information on definitions and examples of Academic Dishonesty, including Cheating, Plagiarism, Obtaining Unfair Advantage and Falsification of Records and Documents, please refer to the student handbook or visit: http://lehman.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2017-2019/Undergraduate-Bulletin/Academic-Services-and-Policies/Academic-Integrity
Technology and Blackboard Information
You are required to use Blackboard to access course materials and to post assignments to Safe Assign.
You are required to provide your best email address to me; if not provided I will use the one given by the school. Either way you must sign into that email account for course messages—and check it! Blackboard will only allow me to send individual and mass messages to Lehman accounts. If there is an issue, this is the only account to which I can send and if I email the class something, the fact that you didn’t know about an assignment or course change because you don’t check your email will never be accepted for not knowing the information.
- Blackboard Links and Support: http://www.lehman.edu/itr/blackboard.php
- For Information Technology: http://www.lehman.edu/itr/
Instructional Support Services (ISSP)
Lehman College’s Instructional Support Services Program (ISSP) is home of the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) and Science Learning Center (SLC). Both offer students an array of activities and services designed to support classroom learning. Open to students at any level, there are individual, small group, and/or workshop sessions designed to improve “proficiency in writing, reading, research, and particular academic subject areas. Computer-assisted writing/language tutorial programs are also available,” as well as individual tutors, workshops and tutors.
- Regular tutoring hours for fall and spring semesters are: M–T 10 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sat. 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
- Lehman College Tutoring Center (LTC): Humanities, Social Sciences, and Writing Tutoring: http://www.lehman.edu/academics/instructional-support-services/humanities-tutoring.php
- Or visit the offices in the Old Gym, Room 205; or call ACE at 718-960-8175, and SLC at 718-960-7707.
Library Tutors are also available in the Library. These tutors offer help with Library resources and computers.
Writing-Intensive Course Requirements
Lehman Students must complete four writing-intensive courses. In a WI Course, “students should be expected to write approximately 15-20 pages of proofread, typed work that is turned in to the instructor for grading.” Various courses stipulate various requirements designed to meet this requisite over the course of the semester. WI courses focus on revision, short and long assignments, graded and ungraded writing, journals, etc, and each will have “a class-size limit of twenty-two. Under no circumstances will more than twenty-five students be admitted to any writing-intensive section.”
- Writing Intensive FAQs: http://www.lehman.edu/academics/general-education/writing-faqs.php
Student Handbook
Students are strongly encouraged to download and become familiar with the Student Handbook.
- Student handbook link: http://www.lehman.edu/campus-life/support-services.php