University’s policy on Academic Integrity
The faculty and administration of Brooklyn College support an environment free from cheating and plagiarism. As a student, you are personally responsible for being aware of what constitutes cheating, and plagiarism; and, for avoiding both. You can view the complete text of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy here: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies. If a faculty member suspects a violation of academic integrity, and upon investigation, confirms that violation, or if the student admits the violation, the faculty member MUST report the violation.
Your cell phone, PDA or other device must be turned off during class. If you are a habitual offender in this respect (i.e. it happens more than twice during the semester), you will be asked to leave the classroom. If you absolutely need to have your phone on during class—talk to me at the beginning of the semester.
Make-up exams will be given only when there is a “good” reason for having missed an exam. For example, if a sudden illness causes you to miss an exam, then you should be prepared to provide me with a brief note signed by your physician. Contact me before an exam in the event that you anticipate missing one. In the event of an emergency, contact me as soon as possible. If you are missing a class for religious reasons refer to the state law regarding non-attendance because of religious beliefs (p. 64 in the Undergraduate Bulletin or p. 40 of the Graduate Bulletin).
WARNING: This is not the kind of course for which you do not need to come to class, and read the textbook at the last minute and expect to do well on tests and papers. The material in this course builds in complexity across classes, and doing well in this course will require a constant moderate level of effort. If you join the course later or are unsure about anything please ask.
I will regularly use e-mail to send out announcements, changes in the syllabus, reminders about tests or due dates etc. It is your responsibility to check e-mail regularly to keep up-to-date with these announcements. I will use the e-mail address you have listed with the College. Therefore, please make sure that this is indeed the correct address.
Please pick up after yourself. Absolutely no food is allowed in the lecture and lab rooms.
It is important to me that the course be accessible to all students. In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations students must first be registered with the Center for Student Disability Services. Students who have a documented disability or suspect they may have a disability are invited to set up an appointment with the Director of the Center for Student Disability Services, Ms. Valerie Stewart-Lovell at 718-951-5538. If you have already registered with the Center for Student Disability Services please provide me with the course accommodation form so we may discuss your specific accommodation. A guide and more information can be found here http://catsweb.cuny.edu
The Library maintains a collection of links to sites that can assist you with proper citation format and paraphrasing and quoting other authors at Research & Writing Help. The Learning Center has writing tutors available to help you with your writing http://lc.brooklyn.cuny.edu/.
The best learning is done in conversation with others, whether they are people—classmates, teachers, friends—or texts—books, articles, essays, poems, films etc. It should not be a solitary process. However, the assignments that you hand in for this course must be done on your own, should represent your own thinking, and should be original work that you have done for this particular course. A good way to balance these two seemingly contradictory approaches (collaborative learning and original individually-produced work) without knowingly—or, even unwittingly—resorting to plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct is to learn and meticulously observe the rules for citing the work of others (this could be the great point your roommate made that you used in your paper, it could be a well-turned phrase from an academic essay, or it could be anything in between). It is your responsibility to learn what constitutes plagiarism and the correct rules for citing sources—read the information on the following website carefully: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies/. The bottom line is: passing off anyone’s words or ideas as your own for any reason whatsoever is plagiarism.