Honor Code

Academic integrity is essential to what we do and who we are as students and scholars at Hofstra University. A visible public commitment to academic integrity also helps communicate to those within and outside the community that a Hofstra diploma accurately represents our graduates’ achievements. Hofstra’s Honor Code provides an opportunity for students to show their commitment to demonstrate academic integrity and ethical behavior in all they do.

The Hofstra community values and expects academic integrity on all levels. Academic integrity is vital to the mission of the University, and its pursuit is a shared responsibility of all faculty, students, and administrators. All members of our community have the opportunity to express their overall commitment to academic integrity by agreeing to uphold Hofstra’s Honor Code:

“As a member of the Hofstra community, I pledge to demonstrate integrity and ethical behavior in all aspects of my life, both inside and out of the classroom. I understand that I am accountable for everything I say and write. I will not misrepresent my academic work, nor will I give or receive unauthorized assistance for academic work. I agree to respect the rights of all members of the Hofstra community. I will be guided by the values expressed in the P.R.I.D.E. Values.  I accept the responsibility to follow this Honor Code at all times.”

Students may be reminded of their responsibility to uphold the Honor Code when faculty require that assignments and/or exams include the following abbreviated version of the Honor Code:

Undergraduate Student Responsibility

Hofstra University places high value upon educating students about academic honesty. The complete policy is described in Faculty Policy Series #11. See Faculty Policy Series #11A for the Maurice A. Deane School of Law and Faculty Policy Series #11G for Graduate Students.

The academic community assumes work of any kind – whether a research paper, a critical essay, a homework assignment, a test or quiz, a computer program, or a creative assignment in any medium – is done, entirely and without unauthorized assistance, by the individual(s) whose name(s) it bears. If joint projects are assigned, then the work is expected to be wholly the work of those whose names it bears. If the work contains facts, ideas, opinions, discoveries, words, statistics, illustrations, or other elements in any media form (including electronic) that are beyond the assumption of being common knowledge, these must be fully and appropriately acknowledged, following a prescribed format for doing so. They may be acknowledged through footnotes, endnotes, citations, or whatever other means of acknowledgment is acceptable according to the format prescribed in that particular field of study.

Students bear the ultimate responsibility for implementing the principles of academic honesty. Students must understand that it is not enough to identify the source of quoted material; it is also necessary to indicate when one is paraphrasing (restating in other words) material found in a source. Thus, the use of others’ ideas as well as their words needs to be acknowledged.

Undergraduate Student Violations

(For the complete policy, please refer to Faculty Policy Series #11. See Faculty Policy Series #11A for the Maurice A. Deane School of Law and Faculty Policy Series #11G for Graduate Students.)

Any violation of these principles constitutes academic dishonesty. Indeed, it is important for students to avoid even the appearance of dishonesty. The following is a partial list of such violations and is not exhaustive:

A.              Violations Regarding Exams:

a.    Obtaining unauthorized information concerning an exam and/or giving such information to another student;

b.   Communicating with anyone, other than the exam proctor, while taking an exam;

c.    Helping another person to cheat on an examination;

d.   Reading or copying another student’s examination sheet, test booklet, or computer screen during an exam;

e.    Possessing unauthorized materials or tools (such as books, cellphones, calculators, electronic hand-held devices, computers) in the examination room during an exam and/or consulting such materials or tools during an exam;

f.     Without proper authorization, beginning an exam before the prescribed time or continuing to work on the exam after the prescribed time;

g.   Failing to submit all bluebooks and examination materials at the end of an exam or removing bluebooks or examination materials from the exam room without the proctor’s or faculty member’s approval;

h.   Having another person take an exam in one’s place;

i.      Submitting work produced with unauthorized collaboration or assistance.

B.             Violations Regarding Plagiarism:

j.      Copying or substantially copying someone else's words without using appropriate informative citations, such as either quotation marks or an indented block quotation;

k.    Paraphrasing someone else's words or work without appropriate citation:

l.     Using paid "research services" or “contract cheating” sources;

m. Copying from homework or test “help” or “tutoring” websites;

n.   Copying from another’s term paper or computer files;

o.   Submitting work produced with unauthorized collaboration or assistance;

p.   Fabricating sources.

C.            Other Violations:

q.   Submitting the same or a significantly similar work for credit in more than one course without the consent of the faculty members involved;

r.     Falsifying experimental data;

s.    Using computer programs or data without proper authorization or acknowledgment;

t.     Making academic work available to others to present as the recipients’ own;

u.   Making someone else’s academic work available to others, including course material such as exams or answers to assignments;

v.    Helping another person to cheat on an assignment;

w. Submitting work produced with collaboration or assistance unauthorized by the faculty member