Essential to the fundamental purpose of the University is the commitment to the principles of truth and academic honesty. The paragraph above developed by and used with the kind permission of the University of Maryland. The Bylaws of the University define the educational conduct of students as under faculty jurisdiction. Giving credit to someone whose work has helped one is courteous and honest. Plagiarism, on the other hand, is a form of fraud.
Proper acknowledgment marks the difference.
A hallmark of the educated student is the ability to recognize and acknowledge information derived from others. The School of Education expects that a student will be scrupulous in crediting those sources that have contributed to the development of his or her ideas. Since plagiarism is a matter of fact, not of the student's intention, it is crucial that acknowledgment of sources be accurate and complete. Even where there is no conscious intention to deceive, the failure to make appropriate acknowledgment constitutes plagiarism. The School of Education imposes heavy penalties for plagiarism in order to safeguard the degrees that the University grants.