GATE programs adhere to Michigan State University expectations about academic integrity.
Academic integrity is honest and responsible scholarship. Students are expected to submit original work and give credit to other peoples’ ideas. Maintaining academic integrity involves
- creating and expressing your own ideas in course work;
- acknowledging all sources of information;
- completing assignments independently or acknowledging collaboration;
- accurately reporting results when conducting your own research or with respect to labs;
- honesty during examinations.
For classes granting credit; Academic integrity is the foundation of university success. Learning how to express original ideas, cite sources, work independently, and report results accurately and honestly are skills that carry students beyond their academic career. Academic dishonesty not only cheats the student of valuable learning experiences, but can result in a failing grade on assignments, a failing grade in a course, or even expulsion from the university for the student.
Consistent with MSU’s efforts to enhance student learning, foster honesty, and maintain integrity in our academic processes, instructors may use tools to compare a student’s work with multiple sources. The tools compare each student’s work with an extensive database of prior publications, submissions, and papers, providing links to possible matches and a “similarity score.” These tools do not determine whether plagiarism has occurred or not. Instead, the instructor must make a complete assessment and judge the originality of the student’s work. All submissions to GATE for-credit courses may be checked using tools of this nature best suited to the course content.
The following are additional MSU resources on plagiarism and academic integrity: https://www.msu.edu/~ombud/academic-integrity/plagiarism-policy.html https://www.msu.edu/~ombud/academic-integrity/student-faq.html
Please note: ALL violations are considered on a case by case basis and students can be dismissed at any time, for any type of violation at the discretion of GATE staff.
Plagiarism
GATE instructors and staff exercise a zero-tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. Proper citation procedures will be covered in class and students are encouraged to ask clarifying questions of GATE staff before submitting materials as their own. By entering into the GATE program, all students and parents agree to adhere to all GATE academic integrity policies including this zero-tolerance plagiarism requirement. More information regarding plagiarism can be found at: https://www.plagiarism.org/understanding-plagiarism. Students may feel free to ask their instructor about plagiarism concerns prior to the submission of an assignment. After an assignment is submitted, and it is found to have any degree of plagiarism, the student will be immediately dismissed from the GATE program without appeal. The student must then report back to their home school within 24 hours to register for an appropriate course with their current counselor or principal. No refunds of any type are granted if students are dismissed from a program.
ANY use of Grammarly, CHAT GPT, or other similar AI programs or tools is considered plagiarism. Any student caught using such programs will be dismissed immediately. A pillar of GATE academic year programming is to ensure that students leave us prepared to create original, authentic work. Further, students will not be allowed to use tools of this nature in future advanced assessments (AP tests or national assessments), so they should not rely on them while in our programs where they are meant to be developing skills beyond those taught in standard classroom instruction.