Disallowed Collaboration
A student who helps another student cheat is also guilty of violating the principles of academic honesty. Instructors should let students know whether they can or cannot collaborate on any assignment, and students are responsible for knowing when they can and cannot collaborate. If they are not certain, the assumption should be that collaboration is not allowed until they clarify the guidelines with their instructor. Any collaboration should be acknowledged on submitted work.
A committee appointed by the Student Government Association made the following clarifications about academic honesty: (1) Anyone acting in the role of tutor, either in a paid or voluntary capacity, may work on specific homework problems as long as these problems will not be used by the instructor for grading purposes. Students should clarify ambiguous situations such as lab write-ups and computer programs with the individual professor before collaborating with others. (2) A proofreader may check for errors and misspellings. Also, proofreaders may check for problems in grammar, usage, diction, and agreement. The proofreader may identify the error, but not directly correct the mistake. In a general sense, the proofreader is free to discuss topics, ideas, and concepts in the paper. The reader may suggest alterations, but at no time may a proofreader actually write any phrase, sentence, or paragraph for another student.