Academic Misconduct

Author: Josh Hug, Peyrin Kao

Academic Misconduct Philosophy

Given how very hard so many people in 61B work for what they achieve, we must pursue academic misconduct cases very seriously, and without much mercy. However, we also don’t want to derail your undergraduate plans for a single, albeit serious, mistake.

For those of you who did do something dishonest: we understand that the pressure is very high at Berkeley, and that under this pressure, you may have done something you wouldn’t usually do. This is not a reflection on who you are as a person, but nonetheless, we must administer sanctions to maintain the integrity of the department. We hope you will learn from this experience and that it does not cause you too much grief.

We hope this process is fair and encourages you to establish a more solid foundation as you move forwards with your future in CS. If you are indeed responsible, do not feel that you are somehow a tainted person! Painful though it may be now, we hope that you will instead someday reflect on this process as ultimately enriching, as it helps build you into being more resistant to taking the easy low road in future times of great duress.

We understand that our detection methods can sometimes produce false positives (flagging you even though you did not do anything dishonest). If your case is a false positive, the resolution process includes multiple ways for you to request further adjudication, including asking an independent third party (the Center for Student Conduct) to review the case.

That said, if you did commit an act of academic misconduct, please do not waste our time or yours by trying to get out of negative consequences. It probably won’t work and it’s unethical.

For those of you want more details on the process, read further. However, you shouldn’t need these details to decide what to do. (This policy is subject to minor revisions and should not be considered set in stone.)

Misconduct Penalties

If you are found responsible for misconduct at the end of the process, we will apply two types of penalties:

  • The academic penalty is applied by 61B course staff and affects your course grade.
  • The Center for Student Conduct (CSC) penalty is applied by the CSC, and 61B course staff has no control over this penalty.

If your misconduct case involves a single non-exam assignment (e.g. one project), then the penalties are:

  1. Academic penalty: A score of 0 on the assignment.
  2. CSC penalty: Decided by the CSC. Possibly an NRW if it’s your first case (see below).

If your misconduct case involves an exam, or it involves two or more assignments, then the penalties are:

  1. Academic penalty: A grade of F in the class.
  2. CSC penalty: Decided by the CSC. Possibly an NRW if it’s your first case (see below).

From our experience, if this is your first misconduct case at Berkeley, the CSC usually issues a “Non-Reportable Warning” (NRW). This warning is only visible to the CSC, and it does not show up on your official conduct record. (source) However, we have no control over the CSC’s process, so ultimately it is their choice whether to issue an NRW or something else. If you have further questions, you can contact the CSC (see links below).

College-Level Policies

If you are found responsible for academic misconduct:

  • You won’t be able to drop the course. If you try to drop the course, it will be reinstated.
  • You won’t be able to change your grading option (e.g. from graded to P/NP).
  • You won’t be able to take an incomplete grade in the course.

These policies are enforced at the college level, and there is nothing that 61B course staff can do to change them. If you have further questions, you can contact advising (see links below).

Sources:

Resolution Process

61B staff uses a combination of automated detection tools and manual inspection of submissions to flag potential misconduct.

In order to protect against false positives, we will only initiate the misconduct process if multiple staff members have manually inspected your code, and all staff members agree that misconduct may have occurred. If even one staff member thinks that the case is a false positive, we would drop the case (and you won’t be notified).

If you receive an email notifying you about potential academic misconduct, you have three options for how to proceed.

  • Option 1: Accept responsibility. You accept that your submission is not your own original work, or that you allowed another student to see your work (even if by accident).

    To select this option, you’ll need to sign a Faculty Disposition Form (FDF) accepting responsibility, and send the signed form back to us.

    After you select this option, we’ll apply an academic penalty. Then, we’ll send the signed form to the CSC, and they’ll apply a penalty. After both penalties have been applied, the case is closed.

  • Option 2: Adjudication. You are unsure if your case constitutes misconduct, or you believe that your case does not constitute misconduct. You would like to discuss the case with a member of staff.

    To select this option, you’ll need to book an appointment with a member of course staff, where we can hear out your side of the story and answer any questions that you may have.

    After our meeting:

    • If you and staff both agree that no misconduct occurred, we will drop the case, and the case is closed.
    • If you and staff both agree that misconduct occurred, you can select Option 1, and sign and send us the form. The case will be closed after both penalties are applied.
    • If you and staff disagree on whether misconduct occurred, you will need to select Option 1 or Option 3 to move forward.

  • Option 3: Forwarding. You disagree with staff after meeting in Option 2, or you would like to bypass Option 2 entirely and have a third party resolve the case.

    To select this option, let us know, and we will forward your case to the CSC. After we forward your case to the CSC, it is out of our hands, and the CSC will conduct its own independent process.

    We have no control over the CSC’s process, or how long it takes. If you have questions about the CSC’s process, you can ask them (see links below).

    After the CSC finishes its process, the CSC will inform you and staff whether you are responsible or not responsible.

    • If the CSC says you were responsible, we’ll apply an academic penalty, the CSC will apply its penalty, and the case will be closed.
    • If the CSC says you were not responsible, we’ll drop the case (no academic penalty), and the case will be closed.

Note: If we have a high volume of cases, we may not have enough staff time to hold a meeting (Option 2) with every student. If that occurs, you will have a choice between Options 1 and 3 (but not 2).

Reusing Work

You may reuse any code as long as it is your own original work, and you followed our collaboration policies when creating that code.

For example, you might have taken 61B in a previous semester, but dropped the course halfway through. Or, you might have completed some of the assignments ahead of time. Reusing this code is fine, as long as you are the original author of that code, and that code was produced in a way that’s consistent with our collaboration policies (e.g. you did not generate the code with ChatGPT).

If you are not certain if the code is your own original work, don’t use it! You should instead delete the code and start from scratch. Remember, looking at any code that is not yours constitutes academic misconduct.

Resources

We understand that the misconduct process can be stressful, and there’s a lot of information to process.

Here are some resources to help you through the process:

If you have questions for 61B course staff, the one and only email to contact is: cs61b-misconduct@berkeley.edu. Do not email other 61B emails, and do not email individual instructors or staff members; you won’t get a response.