The academic integrity of Syracuse University is up for evaluation and officials are asking every student, undergraduate and graduate, to get involved.

As part of a new committee formed by Vice Chancellor and Provost Deborah A. Freund, the university sent out an e-mail last Tuesday to all students as well as faculty and staff, with a link to a survey designed to assess academic integrity based on the opinion of people in the classroom.

‘One of the things we’re looking into right now is whether or not there should be a campus-wide policy for academic integrity,’ said Jessie Cordova, a senior in The College of Arts and Sciences and member of the committee. ‘But right now we are just doing a lot of research.’

The survey is an initiative of the vice chancellor and provost’s Committee on Academic Integrity, which convened Oct. 8 and is meeting every Friday to assess the university’s policies of academic integrity. The committee is now working with the Center for Academic Integrity, a national, non-profit organization, to accurately assess the academic integrity at the university.

By offering the incentive of winning a free iPod, more than 3,039 SU and SUNY ESF students, faculty and staff have responded to the survey up to this point, said Eletta Callahan, professor in the School of Management and chairwoman of the committee, despite original confusion that the e-mail was spam.

‘In any of the research, there’s usually a low response rate. But if you send it to enough people, you usually get an accurate response,’ said Chris O’Connor, a graduate assistant with CAI.

With data collected from the survey, Freund and others hope to determine whether the academic integrity policies should remain the same, be altered, or be united into campus-wide policy.

Currently, each college has its own policy on academic integrity, which is designed to ensure students do their own research, find their own data and do their own work in the classrooms.

If the students know the rules, and consequences, they’ll be less likely to cheat, Callahan said.

The committee also hopes that by using CAI to conduct their survey they can draw on their experience. CAI, which was founded 15 years ago, has helped more than 65 campuses assess their academic integrity and is affiliated with more than 300 educational facilities nationwide. This experience should allow SU to pull good qualities from the policies of other universities and add it to its own, O’Connor said.

‘We are trying to be as transparent as possible while conducting our research,’ Callahan said.

Published on November 15, 2004 at 12:00 pm