• Seton Hall University
• Department of Religion

The Department of Religion considers Academic Integrity of the utmost importance. When we enter higher education, we join a community of scholars held together by a love for knowledge, intellectual engagement, and mutual trust.  Cheating of any kind, but plagiarism in particular, destroys trust, betrays disrespect for the processes of learning to which we, as a department, are committed, and mocks genuine intellectual engagement. The Department of Religion considers all cheating and plagiarism serious breaches of academic integrity.

• Plagiarism: stealing and/or passing off as one’s own the ideas or words of another; using without crediting the source.  It includes: (1) copying of text/research/assignments; (2) using someone else’s papers/research/assignments, or material from the internet without permission and citation; (3) representing as one’s own work what is the work of another person or is the product of generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Given this definition, except for exercises assigned by your professor, the use of AI tools such as ChatGPT (and other generative AI software) is not permitted in courses offered by the Department of Religion. Use of AI tools to assist in course assignments or exams violates the Department’s Academic Integrity Policy and will be subject to penalties outlined below.

Penalties for plagiarism and cheating are open to the discretion of the professor, but include giving the assignment a zero, failing the student for the course, and recommending suspension or expulsion from the university.