"Academic Integrity is defined as "honest and responsible scholarship" (University of Oklahoma, 2018), and is further characterized by the five values designated by the International Center for Academic Integrity: "honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility" (International Center for Academic Integrity, 2014, p. 16). Nazareth University shares the Center's preference for an academic, supportive, and promotive approach to academic integrity rather than one focused mainly on violation detection and disciplinary consequence.
Nazareth recognizes the interdependence among these five values. Trust of instructors follows fair treatment of students. Trust among scholars at all levels depends on honesty. And respect is earned when we hold ourselves as responsible as we expect others to hold themselves. In these ways, academic freedom is earned with academic integrity.
In addition to modeling academic integrity, it is often the responsibility of faculty to teach students the importance of academic honesty as well as the procedures for recognizing the work of others. So informed, students are then responsible for holding themselves to the same standards. Course instructors are familiar with their students, with their own disciplines’ conventions, and with their own coverage of those conventions at any given point in the semester. Therefore, instructors are best situated initially to assess the nature and extent of violations of academically honest practice. This begins with distinguishing errors due to insufficient education on the one hand, and deliberate violations on the other.