Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty Statement of Intellectual Responsibility

Preamble

Every person's education is the product of his or her own intellectual effort and participation in a process of critical exchange. Amherst cannot educate those who are unwilling to submit their own work and ideas to critical assessment. Nor can it tolerate those who interfere with the participation of others in the critical process. Therefore, the College considers it a violation of the requirements of intellectual responsibility to submit work that is not one's own or otherwise to subvert the conditions under which academic work is performed by oneself or by others.

Article I Student Responsibility

Section 1. In undertaking studies at Amherst College every student agrees to abide by the above statement.

Section 2. Students shall receive a copy of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility with their initial course schedule at the beginning of each semester. It is the responsibility of each student to read and understand this Statement and to inquire as to its implications in his or her specific courses.

Section 3. Orderly and honorable conduct of examinations is the individual and collective responsibility of the students concerned in accordance with the above Statement and Article II, Section 3, below.

Article II Faculty Responsibility

Section 1. Promotion of the aims of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility is a general responsibility of the Faculty.

Section 2. Every member of the Faculty has a specific responsibility to explain the implications of the statement for each of his or her courses, including a specification of the conditions under which academic work in those courses is to be performed. At the beginning of each semester all members of the Faculty will receive with their initial class lists a copy of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility and a reminder of their duty to explain its implications in each course.

Section 3. Examinations shall not be proctored unless an instructor judges that the integrity of the assessment process is clearly threatened. An instructor may be present at examinations at appropriate times to answer questions.