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Assistant Principal English Eric Grossman revised the academic honesty policy last month to raise students’ awareness of the policy. While the basic idea behind it—that students are to act in an honest and forthright manner at all times—remains the same, the policy has been condensed.

“[The policy] says you’re not supposed to cheat, plagiarize, or any of those bad things,” Principal Stanley Teitel said. “We tried to shorten it up a bit so that everyone could read it and digest it a little quicker.”

The policy, which was originally three pages long, was reduced to about half of a page.

The revised version will be printed inside student planners starting this September.

According to Teitel, plagiarism is a serious problem at Stuyvesant, where the most common forms of academic dishonesty are “plagiarism, cheating on an exam, and sharing of work and presenting it as your own.” Using, but not properly citing Web sites like Spark Notes and Cliff Notes, is also considered plagiarism.

The administration hopes that if students become familiar with a shorter and clearer version of the policy, they will be better informed about all the consequences of plagiarism and will thus not act dishonestly in the future.

According to Grossman, the first time a student commits an act of academic dishonesty he or she will not get credit for that specific assignment. If the transgression happens a second time, the student can receive an academic suspension, and the incident will be reported on his or her transcript.

The revised policy has received positive feedback from the faculty.

“Having something in writing [...] really defines what the school means by academic honesty,” Assistant Principal Mathematics Maryann Ferrara said.

Some students, however, do not think that the policy will be effective.

“[Plagiarism] occurs and it can’t be effectively stopped,” sophomore Henry Lin said. “Those who cheat won’t be deterred.”

“Putting it in the planner wouldn’t really add anything,” sophomore Garreth O’Brien said. “It’s pretty obvious that plagiarism is frowned upon.”

Stuyvesant is trying to counteract academic dishonesty in other ways.

“There have been a lot of discussions at cabinet meetings, department meetings and [School Leadership Team] meetings [...] about ways to try and promote academic honesty more effectively at Stuyvesant,” Grossman said. “One thing that students there said was that if a teacher really stresses it in class, cheating is far less likely to occur.”

Teachers have been using Turnitin.com to help catch those students who plagiarize. The Web site lets them compare students’ work against documents on the Internet.

“If a student is developing [academically dishonest] habits [at Stuyvesant], it is really important
that he or she unlearn them,” Grossman said. “One lower grade is not a big deal compared to what the consequences would be elsewhere.”