Student Blog: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity.  What a tricky topic. In university, the concept is brought up constantly; at the top of all the assignments, at the front of my school’s homepage, refreshed in every class.  Academic integrity is so important, I think especially for artists.  Academic integrity and artistic integrity go hand in hand, and equally important when it comes to being a theatre student.

It can be hard to maintain academic integrity in this crazy world where AI is becoming more and more prevalent in our daily lives.  I maintain academic integrity with a few steps. 

First, start working on assignments way earlier than you need.  I like to give myself plenty of time to work on an assignment.  The feeling of handing in assignments weeks before they are due is unmatched.  When your classmates are stressed out and struggling to submit by 11:59, you can be snoozing away in bed, happy that you were able to work at your own pace and in your own time.  I find that when time is tight, it increases the risk of using sources like OpenAI or ChatGBT.  I try to take a relaxing and low stress approach to  assignments, so that I am in my clearest and readiest mind set.  Obviously this is not a fool proof plan, and life often gets in the way of that, but it's always best to make a conscious effort to try.

Next, do not share work with classmates! Sharing work with classmates is a trap, and an easily traceable one at that.  It is so easy to send your work over to a trusted friend, but if that friend gets caught, you go down too.   By sharing work, you are automatically opening yourself up to claims of academic misconduct, even if your work is not copied.

When it comes to art, it is easy to have ideas come from other places.  Where does inspiration become thievery?  Where does the line get drawn?  What about inspiration, what about paying homage?  As a humble theatre student with no legal knowledge whatsoever, who am I to say anything about this topic.  I guess I don’t understand it.  I think the best thing to do when generating ideas from other work is to ask for opinions or permission.   Ask a professional, a professor or a mentor, for their thoughts.  But don't ask me those questions, because I do not know!

As my focus is leaning more and more towards costuming, I find that for most pieces, everything comes from somewhere!  Especially when it comes to period pieces where you are obviously inspired by an era, a genre, a location, etc. Where is the line drawn?

Moral of the story, I am unsure!  I feel unqualified to speak on academic integrity, even though I have been a student for four years.  I used to major in business management, and coursework was so much more cut and dry, academic integrity was so much easier.  It's hard to commit academic misconduct for a statistics exam.  But in a creative program, my prerogative has shifted, and I feel like it is hard to figure out that barrier. All we can do is our best, and I hope to do that with everything I do!