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Statement on Academic Integrity

Touro College and University System is a community of scholars and learners committed to maintaining the highest standards of personal integrity in all aspects of our professional and academic lives. Because intellectual integrity is a hallmark of scholarly and scientific inquiry as well as a core value of the Jewish tradition, students and faculty are expected to share a mutual respect for teaching, learning and the development of knowledge. They are expected to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, fairness, professional conduct of academic work and respect for all community members.

Academic dishonesty undermines our shared intellectual culture and our ability to trust one another. Faculty and administration bear a major responsibility for promoting a climate of integrity, both in the clarity with which they state their expectations and in the vigilance with which they monitor students. Students must avoid all acts of dishonesty, including, but not limited to, cheating on examinations, fabricating, tampering, lying and plagiarizing, as well as facilitating or tolerating the dishonesty of others. Academic dishonesty lowers scholastic quality and defrauds those who will eventually depend on the knowledge and integrity of our graduates.

The Touro College and University System views violations of academic integrity with the utmost gravity. Such violations will lead to appropriate sanctions, up to and including expulsion from the college community. We commit ourselves to the shared vision of academic excellence that can only flourish in a climate of integrity.

The Touro College and University System’s policy on academic integrity, which is outlined in this document, is designed to guide students as they prepare assignments, take exams, and perform the work necessary to complete their degree requirements, and to provide a framework for faculty in fostering an intellectual environment based on the principles of academic integrity. It is presented here in order to educate the faculty on the enforcement of the policy. 

The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), of which the Touro College and University System is a member, identifies five fundamental values of academic integrity that must be present if the academic life of an institution is to flourish: Honesty, Trust, Fairness, Respect, and Responsibility.1 To sustain these values, the TCUS Academic Integrity Policy,2 requires that a student or researcher:

  • Properly acknowledge and cite all ideas, results, or words originally produced by others;
  • Properly acknowledge all contributors to any piece of work;
  • Obtain all data or results using ethical means;
  • Report researched data without concealing any results inconsistent with student's conclusions;
  • Treat fellow students in an ethical manner, respecting the integrity of others and the right to pursue educational goals without interference. Students may neither facilitate another student's academic dishonesty, nor obstruct another student's academic progress;
  • Uphold ethical principles and the code of the profession for which the student is preparing.

Adherence to these principles is necessary to ensure that:

  • Proper credit is given for ideas, words, results, and other scholarly accomplishment;
  • No student has an inappropriate advantage over others;
  • The academic and ethical development of students is fostered;
  • The Touro College and University System is able to maintain its reputation for integrity in teaching, research, and scholarship.

Failure to uphold the principles of academic integrity threatens not only the reputation of Touro, but also the value of each and every degree awarded by the institution. All members of the Touro community bear a shared responsibility for ensuring that the highest standards of academic integrity are upheld.

The Touro College and University System administration is responsible for working with faculty and students to promote an institutional culture of academic integrity, for providing effective educational programs that create a commitment to academic integrity, and for establishing fair procedures to deal with allegations of violations of academic integrity.

Updated September 2015