Columbia OT Honor Code

Honor Code for Academic and Professional Conduct

The Programs in Occupational Therapy are committed to the highest academic and professional standards. To this end, there is an expectation that all students, faculty and staff will act in ways consistent with these standards. Conduct must reflect honesty and integrity in all activities associated with our programs and with all parts of the university. The following reflects our programs’ Honor Code, and applies to but is not limited to classroom and clinical settings.

To signify your understanding and agreement with these standards, please read the following and indicate agreement on the survey. Note that academic work includes but is not limited to all assignments handed in for review, all presentations, all labs, and all fieldwork assignments, as determined by course directors and/or clinical instructors, and all extracurricular assignments associated with Columbia University. Clinical settings are those settings in which students are placed for any assignment used in fulfillment of our program's requirements, or as part of an extracurricular activity associated with Columbia University.

• Students in the Programs in Occupational Therapy are expected to fully engage in all aspects of the curriculum. This includes fulfilling all requirements of each class, as delineated in each course syllabus, and in the student handbook.
• All assignments and examinations will reflect full participation in accordance with the guidelines established by the course directors.
• Each student must fully contribute to all assignments that are collaborative or group based. Under no circumstance will a member of a collaborative effort be “carried” by their group, or receive credit when that student did not contribute.
• All submitted assignments must reflect original work. Any information that is not original must be properly referenced according to the APA guidelines.
• All students are expected to be respectful of classmates’ and of faculty work. Recording of class sessions and discussions is not allowed without the instructor’s advanced permission. Do not forward information, course material, slides or handouts provided to you in any form of media, whether in hard copy, online, via email attachments, or via Courseworks, to anyone who would not ordinarily have access to this information. Keep in mind that material prepared for you by faculty is typically under copyright control.

No assistance, unless authorized by the course director, will be used on any assignment or examination. The Programs have zero-tolerance policy for cheating and plagiarism. Cheating is defined as: “the giving or receiving of unauthorized and or unfair aid in academic work. This may occur by, but is not limited to: lying, deceiving, stealing, talking, signaling, copying from other students, and unauthorized usage of books, data (both in hardcopy and electronic formats), study aids, or other sources in a manner inconsistent with the expectations established by”1 the Programs in Occupational Therapy.

Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

• Submitting essays, or portions of essays, or other prose written by other people as one’s own;
• Failing to acknowledge, through proper footnotes and bibliographic entries, the source of ideas essentially not one’s own;
• Failing to indicate paraphrases or ideas or verbatim expressions not one’s own through proper use of quotations and footnotes;
• Submitting an essay written for one course to a second course without having sought prior permission from both instructors;
• Collaborating with other students or outside sources on an assignment or examination without specific permission from the faculty member to do so;
• Using another person’s or institution’s research or data without attribution.”2

It is each student’s responsibility to direct any questions or concerns about what constitutes academic and clinical integrity to a faculty member. Within the Programs in Occupational Therapy, the Faculty and the Due Process Committee shall be responsible for reviewing charges of academic misconduct brought against a student. The consequences of a violation will be determined by the faculty.

The Programs in Occupational Therapy reserves the right to dismiss, or to deny admission, registration, readmission, or graduation to any student who in the judgment of the Faculty of the Programs in Occupational Therapy is determined to be unsuited for the study or practice of Occupational Therapy. The Programs in Occupational Therapy reserves the right to require its students to sign the Honor Code annually.