The following is a verbatim copy of Chemical Engineering's policy on academic integrity. (Materials enclosed in parentheses applies specifically to Nam Sun Wang's class.)

1. Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity will not be tolerated. All suspected cases will be reported immediately to the Student Honor Council. Cases will not be negotiated between faculty members and students, but will be directed to the Student Honor Council for resolution. The standard penalty for violations of the Code of Academic Integrity is a grade of "XF."
2. Professors may prohibit the use of personal calculators during examinations. If calculators are needed, they will then be provided by the professor. (Personal calculators are permitted in Nam Sun Wang's quizzes and examinations, if the instruction allows so. Do not transmit or receive signals from others.)
3. Graded examinations will be routinely xeroxed and filed. Cases of students who alter graded examinations and present such for regrading are reviewed by the Office of Judicial Programs, not the Student Honor Council. The standard penalty for such cases is suspension from the University.
4. All work submitted for grading is to be the original work of the student whose name is on the work. This includes all homework, all research papers, all lab reports, and all computer programs. (If you so choose and unless explicitly prohibited from doing so, you may discuss homework assignments with classmates, the TA, and the instructor, but the final work must be of individual effort. No copying from others. It is ok for students to work together, but I do not want to see similar or identical copies.)
5. "Plagiarism" will be interpreted in its broadest sense: ideas from others must be referenced; words from others must be in quotation marks and referenced. Paraphrasing without referencing will be considered plagiarism.
6. The same work cannot be submitted for credit in two different courses without the written permission of both instructors.
7. The Code of Academic Integrity is printed on page 29 of the current Schedule of Classes. Students are responsible for knowing and understanding the content of the Code. The first examination in each undergraduate course in the Department may include one question about the Code of Academic Integrity.
8. Falsification of excuses for missed work will not be tolerated, and will be treated as cases of academic dishonesty. Excuses for illness must be signed by a physician. (Do not tell me your poor mother died again. No one, perhaps with the exception of cats, according to some, has nine lives.)       :(

Further Clarification.

You are not allowed to copy from each other. That is plagiarism. If the solution is hand-written, do not simply photocopy it from your classmates and submit it as your own. Transcribing it manually the old fashioned way, rather than photocopying it, does not make the act any less plagiarizing. If the solution is in the form of a computer file, do not copy it from your classmates and submit it as your own. Rearranging some parts does not make the act any less plagiarizing.

Do not copy solution from previous years or from friends; that too is plagiarism, no different from copying an English paper or a lab report from someone who has taken the course before.

You may often find the lecture notes that I post to be useful. Make use of them as a reference (that is precisely why I post them to be useful), but do not simply copy from what I post on the web page without providing proper reference. You cannot simply download the file, substitute my name with yours without giving me credit, and turn it in. Analogy: If you are taking Shakespeare and have an essay assignment, you do not copy from Cliff Notes and turn it in, although the answer may be right there in the Cliff Notes. If you find a paper on the internet, you cannot turn it in as yours. You should re-phrase in your own words. Copying even part of a sentence is plagiarism. If you use materials from others, you must give proper credits to the source in such a manner that the reader can clearly judge what is and is not yours. Not any different is ENCH620 (and, for that matter, any other courses, qualifying exams, thesis, or any manuscript that you put your name on).

If you hack into my computer account and find a solution, you are accessing material that is not equally available to the remainder of the class. That is unfair. The stuff I post on the class web is accessible to everyone; thus fair. Just because you can and know how to access something does not make it yours. Taking what is not yours (whether the property is physical or intellectual) is theft.

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Methods of Engineering Analysis -- Policy on Academic Integrity
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Nam Sun Wang Department of Chemical Engineering University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742-2111 301-405-1910 (voice) 301-314-9126 (FAX) e-mail: nsw@eng.umd.edu ©1996-2001 by Nam Sun Wang