From the Carnegie Mellon Student Handbook:

"Students at Carnegie Mellon, because they are members of an academic community dedicated to the achievement of excellence, are expected to meet the highest standards of personal, ethical, and moral conduct possible."

"These standards require personal integrity, a commitment to honesty without compromise, as well as truth without equivocation, and a willingness to place the good of the community above the good of the self. Obligations once undertaken must be met, commitments kept."

"The discovery, advancement and communication of knowledge are not possible without a commitment to these standards. Creativity cannot exist without acknowledgment of the creativity of others. New knowledge cannot be developed without credit for prior knowledge. Without the ability to trust that these principles will be observed, an academic community cannot exist."

We include this statement so that there will be no misunderstandings once the semester gets underway. CMU students are expected to follow the ethical guidelines and cheating and plagiarism policies defined in the Student Handbook or in The Word. This material is available in hardcopy and on the CMU web site. Please read it carefully! You will be held accountable for violations of these guidelines and policies that come to our attention.

While we encourage you to be helpful to your classmates, it is important that the work you turn in for evaluation is your own. You are welcome to talk with other students about general course content, requirements, and technology issues. You are not welcome to offer material assistance to other students in completing specific aspects of graded assignments nor should you seek it from other students.

If there is any doubt in your mind about a particular situation, ask yourself these questions: "How would I feel if I observed another student or students engaging in this particular behavior? Would I still engage in this behavior if the professor was standing right next me at this moment?"

In addition to the prohibition on material assistance, any student who turns in work that is identical to or similar beyond a coincidence to that of another student will face appropriate disciplinary action at either the department, college, or university level. Any student or team that draws on publicly available code, designs, or other intellectual property without properly crediting the original source may also face appropriate sanctions.

"The commitment of its faculty, staff and students to these standards contributes to the high respect in which the Carnegie Mellon degree is held. Students must not destroy that respect by their failure to meet these standards. Students who cannot meet them should voluntarily withdraw from the IS program and/or the university."

Students who have additional questions regarding what is and is not allowable under this poicy should contact the instructors for further clarification.

Please note: this site contains relevant information for the Fall 2000 semester only. The site is maintained by Professor H, so any questions or problems with these pages should be sent to lheimann@andrew.cmu.edu.