UC Berkeley CS150

Cheating Policy

University Policy on Cheating or Plagiarism(From the UCB General Catalog)

Achievement and proficiency in subject matter include your realization that neither is to be achieved by cheating. An instructor has the right to give you an F on a single assignment produced by cheating without determining whether you have a passing knowledge of the relevant factual material. That is an appropriate academic evaluation for a failure to understand or abide by the basic rules of academic study and inquiry. An instructor has the right to assign a final grade of F for the course if you plagiarized a paper for a portion of the course, even if you have successfully and, presumably, honestly passed the remaining portion of the course. It must be understood that any student who knowingly aids in plagiarism or other cheating, e.g., allowing another student to copy a paper or examination question, is as guilty as the cheating student.

EECS Department Policy

Copying all or part of another person's work, or using reference material not specifically allowed, are forms of cheating and will not be tolerated. A student involved in an incident of cheating will be notified by the instructor and the following policy will apply:

  1. The instructor may take actions such as: a. require repetition of the subject work, b. assign an F grade or a 'zero' grade to the subject work, c. for serious offenses, assign an F grade for the course.

  2. The recommended action for cheating on examinations or term papers is 1(c).

  3. The instructor must inform the student and the Department Chair in writing of the incident, the action taken, if any, and the student's right to appeal to the Chair of the Department Grievance Committee or to the Director of the Office of Student Conduct.

  4. The instructor must retain copies of any written evidence or observation notes.

  5. The Department Chair must inform the Director of the Office of Student Conduct of the incident, the student's name, and the action taken by the instructor.

  6. The Office of Student Conduct may choose to conduct a formal hearing on the incident and to assess a penalty for misconduct.

  7. The Department will recommend that students involved in a second incident of cheating be dismissed from the University.

My Policy

If I catch you cheating, I will give you an F on the assignment. If it is a midterm exam, final exam, or final project, I will give you an F in the class. You will be reported to the office of student conduct. If you have a previous case of cheating on your record, I will push to have you expelled from the University.

What is Cheating and Plagiarism?

plagiarize, v. 1) To steal and use (the ideas or writings) of another) as one's own (from the American Heritage Dictionary) cheat, v. 1) To act dishonestly; practice fraud (from the American Heritage Dictionary)

If you turn in someone else's work as if it were your own, you are guilty of cheating. This includes homework sets, answers on exams, verilog code, schematic diagrams, etc.

It is acceptable to discuss lab exercises and the final project with one another. And it is acceptable to work together on homework sets. However, you cannot copy or exchange electronic files, printouts, or handwritten materials.

Example Student Excuses

We have heard all of the following statements. All of the people making these statements were given an F. The first few are easy:

These next few are a little trickier. Are you guilty of cheating if you give away something that doesn't work, or if someone promises that they won't copy but just wants to look, or if you put yourself in a situation where it is trivially easy for someone to copy your work? YES! If someone breaks into your room or your account, or searches your backpack when you aren't looking, that's not your fault. If you pin your homework on the bulletin board, or leave it on the dining room table when your roommates are around, that is your fault. F's for all of the following:

And then there is the appeal to friendship, common fraternity, ethnicity, you name it:

What you can do is be very blunt: "Are you out of your mind? We can both be thrown out of the university for this! I will not risk my entire college career on this."

Anyone who asks you to cheat is threatening your grade and your future as well as his or hers. Don't give in!