Mandatory Syllabus Policies

Mandatory Syllabus Text

For every course at UMSI, faculty are expected to establish and communicate policies on at least three issues: (1) academic integrity and misconduct, (2) accommodations for students with disabilities, and (3) student mental health and well-being. Below are boilerplate text that are consistent with UMSI and UM policies. You should include these policies in your syllabus. 

Academic Integrity and Misconduct

UMSI follows Rackham’s policies for academic integrity and misconduct for the doctoral program and has adopted similar policies for the MSI, MHI, MADS, and BSI programs. These are detailed in program-specific student handbooks available on the UMSI Current Students webpage. All breaches of academic and professional integrity should be reported by emailing umsi.academicintegrity@umich.edu (for bachelor's and master's students) or the director of the doctoral program (for Ph.D. students). The faculty member should meet with the student individually and ask for their response to the allegation, and include this in an email reporting the incident. For significant issues the student will also meet with the director of student success and programs or the director of the doctoral program. The overall goal of addressing violations is usually educational for the first offense. The faculty instructor determines the impact on the assignment or course grade; sanctions may include no credit for non-original work or permission to redo and submit original work for partial credit. The School may assign additional sanctions such as requiring the student to write a paper on plagiarism, and/or requiring the student to complete an online tutorial about academic integrity. All reported violations will be documented centrally. Repeat offenses will result in more severe sanctions such as a notation on the unofficial transcript or, with consultation from the Academic Discipline Committee (includes Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, and Director of Student Success and Programs) and the university general counsel, dismissal from the program. 

Applications and Services for Detecting Plagiarism

Some instructors use applications or services to detect plagiarism. If you are using plagiarism software, you must inform students in the syllabus. Some plagiarism services incorporate any text you submit into the corpuses to improve their services. 

Syllabus Text: Academic Integrity

Here are two suggested text blocks you could incorporate in your syllabi concern­ing academic integrity. You should consider customizing these (or writing your own) to align with your pedagogical methods and class expectations.

Option 1: Original work boilerplate (short):

Unless otherwise specified in an assignment all submitted work must be your own, original work. Any excerpts, statements, or phrases from the work of others must be clearly identified as a quotation, and a proper citation provided. Any violation of the School’s policy on Academic and Professional Integrity (stated in program-specific student handbooks) will result in serious penalties, which might range from failing an assign­ment, to failing a course, to being expelled from the program. Violations of academic and professional integrity will be reported to UMSI Office of Academic and Student Affairs. The faculty instructor determines consequences impacting assignment or course grades; the School may impose additional sanctions. 

Option 2: Original work boilerplate (long): 

Collaboration

UMSI strongly encourages collaboration while working on some assignments, such as homework problems and interpreting reading assignments as a general practice. Active learning is effective. Collaboration with other students in the course will be especially valuable in summarizing the reading materials and picking out the key concepts.You must, however, write your homework submission on your own, in your own words, before turning it in. If you worked with someone on the homework before writing it, you must list any and all collaborators on your written submission. Each course and each instructor may place restrictions on collaboration for any or all assignments. Read the instructions carefully and request clarification about collaboration when in doubt. Collaboration is almost always forbidden for take-home and in-class exams.

Plagiarism

All written submissions must be your own, original work. Original work for narrative questions is not mere paraphrasing of someone else's completed answer: you must not share written answers with each other at all. At most, you should be working from notes you took while participating in a study session. Largely duplicate copies of the same assignment will receive an equal division of the total point score from the one piece of work.

You may incorporate selected excerpts, statements or phrases from publications by other authors, but they must be clearly marked as quotations and must be attributed. If you build on the ideas of prior authors, you must cite their work. You may obtain copy editing assistance, and you may discuss your ideas with others, but all substantive writing and ideas must be your own, or be explicitly attributed to another. See the program-specific student handbooks available on the UMSI Current Students webpage for the definition of plagiarism, resources to help you avoid it, and the consequences for intentional or unintentional plagiarism.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

UMSI helps enforce accommodations for stu­dents with documented disabilities (physical or mental) in partnership with the Services for Students with Disabilities for the purpose of supporting the student’s learning needs or style and to comply with federal law and University policy. We do not grade students with disabilities on a different basis than non-disabled students. The University Faculty Senate (SACUA) in 2006 endorsed the following language for inclusion on course syllabi (Note: We have modified the final sentence based on input from the UM General Counsel’s office): 

Syllabus Text: Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

If you think you need an accommodation for a disability, please let me know at your earliest convenience. Some aspects of this course, the as­signments, the in-class activities, and the way we teach may be modified to facilitate your participation and progress. As soon as you make me aware of your needs, we can work with the Office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) to help us determine appropriate accommoda­tions. SSD (734-763-3000; ssd.umich.edu/) recommends students request disability-related academic accommodations via the Accommodate system, a core electronic case management system that will assist students, faculty, instructors, and staff in requesting, approving, and implementing disability-related accommodations. I will treat any information that you provide in as confidential a manner as possible.

Student Mental Health and Wellbeing

New Syllabus Statement on Student Well-Being (for Winter 2021 Term forward)

Option 1: SHORT version of the recommended syllabus statement:

 Student Wellbeing

Students may experience stressors that can impact both their academic experience and their personal well-being. These may include academic pressure and challenges associated with relationships, mental health, alcohol or other substances, identities, finances, food insecurity, or other external stressors.

Option 2: LONG version of the recommended syllabus statement: 

Student  Wellbeing 

Students may experience stressors that can impact both their academic experience and their personal well-being. These may include academic pressure and challenges associated with relationships, mental health, alcohol or other substances, identities, finances, food insecurity, or other external stressors.

If you are experiencing concerns, seeking help is a courageous thing to do for yourself and those who care about you. If the source of your stressors is academic, please contact UMSI's academic success team via umsi.academicsuccess@umich.edu or me so that we can find solutions together. For personal concerns, U-M offers the following resources:

• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) - confidential; For mental health support, you can access CAPS by calling the central office at (734) 764-8312 or by emailing the School of Information Embedded CAPS Psychologist, Ashley Evearitt, Psy.D., at evearitt@umich.edu. If you are in crisis, please call CAPS at 734.764.8312, or the UM Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) at 734.936.5900, or 911.  Directions to PES are here: http://www.psych.med.umich.edu/contact/er.asp 

• Dean of Students Office - 734-764-7420; provides support services to students and manages critical incidents impacting students and the campus community

• Ginsberg Center for Community Service Learning - 734-763-3548; opportunities to engage as learners and leaders to create a better community and world

• Maize and Blue Cupboard at the University of Michigan provides food, kitchen and cooking supplies, personal and household items, and support services for studnets experiencing food insecurity. 

• Multi-ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) - 734-763-9044; diversity and social justice through the lens of race and ethnicity

• Office of Student Conflict Resolution - 734-936-6308; offers multiple pathways for resolving conflict

• Office of the Ombuds - 734-763-3545; students can raise questions and concerns about the functioning of the university.

• Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) - 734-763-3000; accommodations and access to students with disabilities

• Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC) - confidential; 734-764-7771 or 24-hour crisis line 734-936-3333; addresses sexual assault, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment, and stalking

• Spectrum Center - 734-763-4186; support services for LGBTQ+ students

• Trotter Multicultural Center - 734-763-3670; intercultural engagement and inclusive leadership education initiatives

• University Health Service (UHS) - 734-764-8320; clinical services include nurse advice by phone, day or night

• Well-being for U-M Students website - searchable list of many more campus resources

• Wolverine Wellness - confidential; 734-763-1320;  provides Wellness Coaching and much more