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Statement on Academic Integrity

Touro University is a community of scholars and learners committed to maintaining the highest standards of personal integrity in all aspects of our professional and academic lives. Because intellectual integrity is a hallmark of ethical, scholarly, and scientific inquiry as well as a core value of the Jewish tradition, students and faculty are expected to share a mutual respect for teaching, learning and the development of knowledge. They are expected to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, fairness, and professional conduct in their academic work and respect for all community members.

Academic dishonesty undermines our shared intellectual culture and our ability to trust one another. Faculty and administration bear a major responsibility for promoting a climate of integrity, both in the clarity with which they state their expectations and in the vigilance with which they monitor students. Students must avoid all acts of dishonesty, including, but not limited to, cheating on examinations, fabricating, tampering, lying, plagiarizing, and utilizing AI tools without acknowledgment of such, as well as facilitating or tolerating the dishonesty of others. Academic dishonesty lowers scholastic quality and defrauds those who will eventually depend on the knowledge and integrity of our graduates. Furthermore, it misrepresents student efforts and mastery of course material both absolutely, and relative to others in their courses.

Touro University views violations of academic integrity with the utmost gravity. Such violations will lead to appropriate sanctions, up to and including expulsion from the university community. We commit ourselves to the shared vision of academic excellence that can only flourish in a climate of integrity.

The Touro University policy on academic integrity, which is outlined in this document, is designed to guide students as they prepare assignments, take exams, and perform work necessary to complete their degree requirements, and to provide a framework for faculty in fostering an intellectual environment based on the principles of academic integrity. It is presented here in order to educate the faculty on the parameters of and the enforcement of the policy.

The International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), of which Touro University is a member, lists six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage, to allow institutional scholarship to flourish with integrity.1 To sustain these values, Touro University’s Academic Integrity Policy, requires that a student or researcher:

  • Properly acknowledge and cite all use of the ideas, results, or words of others, including the use of AI tools and other emerging technologies;
  • Properly acknowledge all contributors to a given piece of work;
  • Make sure that all work submitted as their own in a course or other academic activity is produced without the aid of unsanctioned materials or unsanctioned collaboration;
  • Treat all other students in an ethical manner, respecting their integrity and right to pursue their educational goals without interference. This requires that a student neither facilitate academic dishonesty by others nor obstruct their academic progress.

Adherence to these principles is necessary in order to ensure that:

  • Everyone is given proper credit for their own ideas, words, results, and other scholarly accomplishments;
  • All student work is fairly evaluated and no student has an inappropriate advantage over others;
  • The academic and ethical development of all students are fostered;
  • The reputation of the University for integrity in its teaching, research, and scholarship is maintained and enhanced.

Failure to uphold the principles of academic integrity threatens not only the reputation of Touro, but also the value of each and every degree awarded by the institution. All members of the Touro community bear a shared responsibility for ensuring that the highest standards of academic integrity are upheld.

The Touro University works with faculty and students to promote an institutional culture of academic integrity, provides effective training that creates a commitment to academic integrity, and establishes clear procedures to deal with allegations of violations of academic integrity and monitoring the adherence thereto.