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Overview
Faculty, instructors and teaching assistants should be familiar with students’ privacy rights, especially as governed by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as Amended (FERPA). The Registrar’s Office has web sites on this topic designed for students and faculty. The latter includes a helpful tutorial and quiz. As the Registrar says, the essence of this act is that “(1) Eligible students must be permitted to inspect their own education records; and (2) university officials may not disclose personally identifiable information about students nor permit inspection of their records by third parties without the written permission of the student unless such inspection is permitted by the exceptions written in the act.”
All members of the university committee should be familiar with the campus sexual harassment policy. For more information, see Sexual Harassment Information and Resources.
The Student Conduct and Disciplinary Rules includes rights, responsibilities and procedures.
The UW–Madison Ombuds Programserves as an informal, impartial, confidential and independent resource for faculty and staff at UW–Madison. It supplements the ombuds services available to students through the Dean of Students Office and to Medical School faculty, staff and students through Ombuds Rosa Garner. An ombuds will listen to your concerns, clarify procedures, discuss options and, if requested and appropriate, serve as an intermediary in attempting to resolve disputes. Ombuds work independently from university administrative offices; discussing a matter with an ombuds is confidential and does not constitute notice to the university.
What happens if any of your students are called into military service? See the UW–Madison Military Service Policy.
Resources on plagiarism and cheating
The UW Library has a comprehensive Web site, “Cheating, Plagiarism (And Other Questionable Practices), The Internet, And Other Electronic Resources.”This includes articles, examples of term-paper Web sites, reviews of anti-cheating software, tips for discouraging cheating and tutorials for teaching students.
The UW–Madison Library offers workshops on many topics, including plagiarism.
The UW–Madison Writing Center “Writers’ Handbook”includes a section on quoting, paraphrasing and plagiarism. The Writing Center also offers classes on this subject for students.
Many course syllabi include statements on academic integrity. Enter terms such as “plagiarism” or “academic conduct” in the search engine for the campus Web site to find examples.
Preventing Academic Dishonesty, from Barbara Gross Davis’s Tools for Teaching (Jossey Bass 1993), provides a long lists of tips and references.
The Carnegie Foundation “Perspectives” series includes an article by Jason Stephens, “Justice or just us? What to do about cheating,” along with an archived public conversation in which you can participate.
Project Academic Integrity is a valuable resource based at UW–Madison. It has different sections labelled Facts, Confessions, Ways to Cheat, UW Policy, and Take Action, plus links. A good tool to use with students.