Colorado State University Celebrates Academic Integrity Day as Part of National Character Counts Week

Colorado State University will celebrate its first annual Academic Integrity Day on Tuesday, Oct. 19 during national “Character Counts Week.”

The day-long series of one-hour workshops will allow students to explore the tenets of academic integrity, how those tenets apply in their individual fields of study and, most importantly, methods for avoiding “accidental plagiarism.”

Students arrive at Colorado State from all over the world, often with varying degrees of preparation for college-level academic scholarship and, in particular, to their individual training regarding when and how to correctly cite sources in their written work.

Compounding the issue is the fact that different disciplines have different citation expectations. Students taking classes in several fields of study are often confused by these differences and experience difficulty complying with the varying expectations. International students are further challenged when finding expectations of the American academic system to be quite different then their prior educational experience.

Led by Colorado State faculty, staff, and students, the Academic Integrity Day workshops are scheduled for the Lory Student Center and Rockwell Hall. Students are strongly encouraged to participate. They are free and open to the campus community and aim to provide information that students need to be successful in college and their chosen career.

Some of the university’s top researchers will be teaching workshops on integrity in the sciences, engineering and foreign languages. Workshops will also include discussion of “gray areas” and citing sources in written work.

Academic Integrity Day is a joint project of Associated Students of Colorado State University (ASCSU), the office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct Services (CRSCS), and The Institute for Learning and Teaching (TILT).

Academic integrity is not only an issue of credible scholarship, but also one of character. CSU has twice been named a “Campus of Character” by the John Templeton Foundation. The full schedule of events for Academic Integrity Day is at: http://tilt.colostate.edu/events/view.cfm?EventID=429.

For more information, contact Elaine Green at (970) 491-2898 or Elaine.green@colostate.edu or Shadi Barzideh, director of Academics for ASCSU (970) 491-5931 or academics@ascsu.colostate.edu.
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