University of Toronto -- Department of Computer Science

Your responsibilities in case of academic offences



It's very likely that you will not commit any academic offences, and almost certain that you do not want to do so. (Estimates of the academic-offence rate generally range from 5 to 15% of the students in a course.) However, there are a few things that we expect all the students in your course to do.

Keep your rough notes.

If your course instructor thinks it is possible that you might be involved in an academic offence, then he or she will often want to see the rough notes that you produced while working on the assignment. Don't throw them out until at least a month after the course is over.

Contact your course instructor promptly.

When you hear that we think you might be involved in an academic offence, you must seek an interview with your course instructor promptly.

The most common way of hearing that there's a problem is from your teaching assistant when she or he is returning assignments. If your assignment is not available, and your TA says, "Please contact the instructor," then you should do so as soon as possible. The TA almost certainly can't tell you anything directly.

There are other reasons besides suspected academic offences why you might get this message, but you should always respond promptly.

Read your mail.

Most courses have e-mail accounts associated with them. If classes have ended, or if direct contact by your teaching assistant seems not to be working, then we will send you e-mail if we are concerned that you might be involved in an academic offence. The process of investigating an apparent offence can take quite a while, and we must be able to assume that we can communicate with you in an efficient way. So: read your course e-mail regularly -- at least once a week, even after classes have ended.

If you find it inconvenient to visit or log in to our computing labs to read your mail, you can have it forwarded to another address. Read the documentation for CDF-PC or CDF to find out how.

What if you don't read your e-mail?

If you don't read your e-mail, we will contact you by paper mail or telephone. If you're feeling guilty or scared, you should see your instructor rather than delaying by not reading your mail. Delaying the inevitable doesn't make things better.