Members of the School of Mines Community Behave Ethically
As a student at the School of Mines, you are responsible for the decisions you make about honesty and integrity. If you decide to use cheat sheets, not follow faculty instructions on where to get information for writing papers, preparing reports or solving problems, then you are not behaving ethically and you are in violation of university and Board of Regent policy.
You are also responsible for all written assignments—papers, essay questions, reports. When you write your papers, you need to make sure that the words used are yours or that you give credit to the person who originally thought of that idea or wrote the words. If you don’t, you are plagiarizing which means you are in violation of university and Board of Regent policy. Many professors keep track of papers and reports that students have handed in during the past couple of semesters. They also use the web to check certain phrases or paragraphs. If you didn’t write the report, they have many ways to find out who did. If you didn’t write it and you didn’t give credit to the person who did, you cheated and plagiarized.
Additionally, behaving ethically means doing what's legal and right when it comes to the use of the internet and file sharing. It is not okay to illegally download music, movies or TV shows. There are many ways of getting these files including, but not limited to, the use of bittorrent applications, P2P applications (limewire, kazaa, etc... ), and transferring of illegally obtained files. Know that there are many organizations and companies who are working to prevent copyright infringement and they are watching you and other college students around the world.
If an RA knocks on your door and finds that you are drinking in your dorm room with your friends, you need to make sure that you and your friends give the RA your names. If one of your friends decides it would be funny to give the RA the name of a NASCAR driver rather than their own, your friend just gave the RA, a university employee, false information. That is a violation of university and BOR policy.
Policies that are in place to assist you with decision making and guide you to behave ethically include the following BOR policies listed within the SDSM&T Student Code of Conduct:
1. Acts of dishonesty, including, but not limited to, the following:
a. Cheating, which is defined as, but not limited to, the following:
i. use or giving of any unauthorized assistance in taking quizzes, tests, or examinations;
ii. use of sources beyond those authorized by the instructor in writing papers, preparing reports, solving problems, or carrying out other assignments; or
iii. acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the institutional faculty or staff.
b. Plagiarism, which is defined as, but is not limited to, the following:
i. the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement consistent with accepted practices of the discipline;
ii. the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.
c. Other forms of dishonesty relating to academic achievement, research results or academically related public service;
d. Furnishing information known or believed to be false to any institutional official, faculty member or office;
e. Forgery, fabrication, alteration, misrepresentation or misuse of any document, record, or instrument of identification, including misrepresentations of degrees awarded or honors received;
f. Tampering with the election of any institutionally-recognized student organization;
g. Claiming to represent or act in behalf of the institution when not authorized to so represent or so act.
7. Attempted or actual theft of services or property, including intellectual properties, of the institution or property of a member of the institutional community or other personal or public property;
9. Possession of stolen property on institutional property or at an institutionally sponsored activity, where the property is known to be stolen;
12. Unauthorized possession, duplication or use of keys to any institutional premises, unauthorized entry to or use of institutional premises or unauthorized possession, entry into or use of institutional equipment, data processing systems or information management or storage materials, facilities or systems;
18. Participation in a campus demonstration which disrupts the normal operations of the institution and infringes on the rights of other members of the institutional community; leading or inciting others to disrupt schedules or normal activities within any campus building or area; intentional obstruction which unreasonably interferes with freedom of movement, either pedestrian or vehicular, on campus;
22. Theft of computer time or other abuse of computer access, including, but not limited to:
a. Unauthorized entry into a file to use, copy, read, delete, or change the contents, or for any other purpose;
b. Unauthorized transfer of a file;
c. Unauthorized use of another individual’s identification or account;
d. Use of computing facilities to interfere with the work of another student, faculty member or institutional official;
e. Use of computing facilities to send obscene or abusive messages;
f. Use of computing facilities to interfere with normal operation of the institutional computing system;
g. Making, acquiring or using unauthorized copies of computer software, or violating terms of applicable software license agreements;
h. Attempting to circumvent data protection schemes or tampering with security;
i. Violating institutional Board internet policies.
