College of Optometry

Academic Honesty Statement

 

All students, as future optometrists, committed to the rule and spirit of the Optometric Oath of Practice, are expected to conduct themselves ethically in every clinical situation and every didactic course. The administration, faculty, staff and fellow students at the UM-St. Louis College of Optometry expect that all work you submit is your own.

Dishonesty is a broad category, including, but not limited to:

  1. Plagiarism: copying another person's words, written or verbal, and representing them as one's own.
  2. Cheating: copying answers from another person, soliciting answers, both written and verbal, from another student (or from any unauthorized information source), or knowingly permitting another student to copy your work.
  3. Stealing: unethical use or distribution of secured exam questions (with or without answers), taking reserved materials from the library without intent of returning them and the like.
  4. Violation of Clinical Ethics: fabrication or alteration of clinical records, forgery of preceptor, patient or intern signatures, violation of patient confidentiality (with or without intent) or removing any clinic properties from the clinic floor without expressed permission from a faculty member.

Students must diligently adhere to the strict principles while completing all assignments, quizzes, projects or patient records. Regardless of performance in other portions of this course, anyone who engages in academic dishonesty will earn a score of zero for that item and be referred to the Student Committee and Clinic Committee for further actions, including, but not limited to:

  1. Loss of clinical privileges
  2. Failing a course
  3. Suspension from the professional program
  4. Dismissal from the professional program.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding academic honesty for any element of this course, please discuss it with your course coordinator immediately.

*Submitted and passed by the faculty of
UM-St. Louis College of Optometry
January, 2002