Mount Holyoke College is a community of students, faculty, staff and administrators committed to free inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge in the tradition of the liberal arts. The decision to join this academic community requires acceptance of special rights and responsibilities that are essential for its effective functioning and the realization of its mission. All members of the community share the responsibility to uphold the highest standards of academic integrity. Failure to accept and act on this responsibility threatens the rights of the rest of the community by undermining the trust upon which the community is built.
Students, faculty, staff and administrators assume a commitment to the academic community that supports teaching and learning in an open environment based on mutual trust, respect and concern. All members of the community have the right to careful and constructive analysis of their work, and they have the responsibility to provide a serious response to the work of others.
Each member of the academic community has the right to benefit from its collective knowledge and resources as well as the responsibility to contribute to them. Plagiarism or other forms of scholarly misconduct can have no purpose or place in the academic life of the College. Each student is responsible for observing established procedures in the preparation of assignments and the writing of papers and examinations, and for submitting as one's own, only that work that they themselves have originated. Each instructor is responsible for making clear what procedures are acceptable in the work of a course and for guiding students in those methods and standards of research relevant to the particular discipline. It is a joint responsibility to observe those procedures publicized by campus announcements, such as the procedures to be followed in the preparation and writing of final examinations.
To this end, Mount Holyoke College prohibits the use of artificial intelligence tools or other uncredited persons or entities to produce content that a student misleadingly represents as their own original work, such as generating an essay, creating text, images, providing analysis, creating code or producing assignment responses without the explicit permission of the faculty member. The expectation is that all work submitted by students will be generated by students themselves working individually or in groups as determined by the assignment and instruction of the faculty member.
Each instructor is responsible for making clear what procedures are acceptable when completing work for a course and for guiding students in those methods and standards of research relevant to the particular discipline. Instructors and students share the responsibility to observe the procedures established by the College and publicized in official announcements, such as those for preparing and writing final examinations.
A carefully maintained library collection is central to any academic institution. The collection is built over a long period of time and must be preserved for the benefit of future students and faculty members as well as for those who currently use the collection. The open stacks and reserve book privileges of the library require that all members of the community accept responsibility for the correct use of library materials and for following the established borrowing procedures. Students should be aware that reserved and limited materials must be shared; instructors should allow for sufficient time and adequate copies when assigning work that relies on such materials.
The Academic Honor Board reviews and adjudicates all alleged academic violations of the honor code.
