03/16/2022

Integrity Award Winners

Written by Armando Alemán

During our 2022 virtual conference, ICAI was thrilled to bring back the annual awards to recognize individuals and institutions who have gone above and beyond in the work of academic integrity.  During the awards ceremony in which we also celebrated the 30^th anniversary of ICAI, we recognized the nominees and the winners of five different awards.

The Waldvogel Exemplar of Integrity Award recognizes one individual for demonstrating courage and perseverance in championing the ideals of academic integrity in the face of opposition and adversity. It is intended for an individual who has demonstrated the sixth fundamental value - courage - to champion the ideals of academic integrity in building a culture of integrity.

This year we had two nominees for the Waldvogel Exemplar of Integrity Award:

The first nominee was LaShonda Anthony from George Mason University.  One nominator said, “Dr. Anthony always tried to look out for the best interest of the students in the honor code process, while always maintaining a fair and equitable process. Even, before COVID, Dr. Anthony managed a mountain of a caseload, with minimal staff. However, since COVID her ability to not only motivate her staff but to get in the trenches with her staff to stay on top of our caseload was nothing short of a miracle.” Another nominator stated, “LaShonda is the leader of this often overlooked work that is so important for our students as they navigate college and learn their own ethics for what's next.”

The second nominee was Jessie Townsend from the University of South Carolina.  One of the nominating letters stated, “During the last academic year, Jessie demonstrated courage and perseverance in the face of opposition and adversity when his supervisor departed the institution, and the office received the highest amount of referrals ever. Jessie continued to adjudicate his cases with diligence and grace. In addition to assuming some of his supervisor’s responsibilities, Jessie managed to continue to facilitate our newest initiative, a certificate program with our Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE).”  Another stated, “Members of ICAI are familiar with the unfair assumption that its members are administrative sticklers. Jessie proves we are the opposite in the way he champions the ideals of academic integrity, the ways that he subscribes to our founders’ ideas that academic integrity takes a village, and that building a culture of integrity requires a foundation of compassion, understanding, and commitment to voicing our common goal of student success.”

This year the Waldvogel Exemplar of Integrity Award was awarded to Jessie Townsend from the University of South Carolina. A final statement from one of his nominators was “In his meeting with students regarding possible Honor Code violations, he checked in on their mental health and well-being. The number of thank you emails he received was rewarding, with one student commenting that her Honor Code hearing administrator was the first person to ask her how she was really doing.”

The Tricia Bertram Gallant Award for Outstanding Service is named for Dr. Bertram Gallant who has consistently gone above and beyond while working toward a culture of integrity across the globe. This award recognizes and honors academic and practitioner members of ICAI who have during the previous academic year provided outstanding service to their institution or to the community regarding academic integrity.

This year we had five nominations for the Tricia Bertram Gallant Award for Outstanding Service. 

The first was Emilienne Akpan from the American University of Nigeria. One of her nominators wrote, “On interdepartmental collaborations, in the past, the writing center partnered with the faculty in the English department for research writing seminars for graduate students. As a member of the AUN Academic Integrity Council, Mrs. Akpan has worked diligently with Judicial Affairs to promote the culture of academic integrity on campus.”

The second nominee was Artem Artyukhov from NAQA-Ukraine. A nominator wrote, “Dr. Artyukhov actively participated in the development of academic integrity culture at the national level by organizing joint activities of the National Agency Ethics Committee and the sub commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on academic integrity to develop regulatory documentation for academic integrity assurance of higher education, provided training for accreditation experts on academic integrity, and worked with the National Agency working group to draft a national law on academic integrity.” His nominator also made mention that he uses gamification with students, using minecraft to promote academic integrity.

The third nominee was Courtney Cullen from the University for Georgia. Her nominator said, “She initiated a year-long virtual Faculty Listening Tour of 21 UGA departments in 2020 with a comprehensive report to the Educational Affairs Committee in March 2021.  Courtney also proposed a complete re-write of our institution’s academic integrity policy, to make it more readable and to include a new remediation program, and successfully navigated legal and faculty affairs and multiple committee meetings culminating in the new policy’s approval by University Council less than a month ago.”

The fourth nominee was Amanda McKenzie from the University of Waterloo.  Her nominator wrote, “she has been a key member for executing the ICAI contract with the American Councils to build up Ukraine’s system of quality assurance and academic integrity. She has conducted numerous full day (virtual) workshops for the project, as well as coordinated the project behind the scenes.”  Another said, “every year Amanda mobilizes individuals from across the country to develop an engaging program, deliver interactive activities during the Canadian Consortium day. I have often heard my compatriots declare that the Canadian Consortium Day is their favourite part of the ICAI conference.”

The fifth nominee was Laurie McNeill from the University of British Columbia. A nominator said, “Over the past years, but in the last year specifically, she has gone above and beyond to work towards building a culture of integrity at the University of British Columbia. Her scholarship and practice have planted the seeds for institutional change and her mentorship and service work have been vital to implementation.”  They also said, “Dr. McNeill was the Principal Investigator for “Our Cheating Hearts”, a project supported by UBC’s Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (2017-2020) that looked at how to foster an educative approach to academic integrity on campus and incorporate academic integrity into the curriculum. This project resulted in the creation of resources for faculty around academic integrity but also a shift in approach and awareness.”

The awards committee felt that all five nominees definitely have done outstanding work over the past year, but wanted like to recognize three as award winners. The award winners for the Tricia Bertram Gallant Outstanding Service Award were Artem Artyukhov, Amanda McKenzie, and Laurie McNeill.

The ICAI Student of Merit Award is given to a current student (either pre-college, undergraduate, or graduate student) who has demonstrated passion and motivation towards creating a culture of academic integrity.

The first nominee for the student of merit award was Tushita Tandon from the University of California, San Diego. One nominator wrote that when classes switched to remote, Tushita saw that she had a little extra time and bandwidth and wanted to brainstorm with me other ways that we could promote integrity on campus. She understood that the move to remote and the stress of current events would make maintaining integrity even more challenging for her peers. She was eager to find any creative ways we could to assist our community in staying connected to core integrity values.  Another nominator wrote, “If you could ask Tushita why she, a cognitive science major with a specialization in neuroscience, chooses to spend 10-20 hours of her weeks with the Academic Integrity Office, she would likely tell you quite simply “because integrity matters”.

The second nominee was César González Lozano from University of Monterrey.  One nominator said of César, “I admire him because he stands for what he believes and says. He defends the honor, truth and the learning of integrity among students.”  Another said, “One of his main attributes is the empathy and connection he has with students who commit an act of academic dishonesty, either when listening to them in a hearing or when he adopts the role of peer educator of a student who is going to have a hearing before the Honor Council, because he does not only explains the process and accompanies them during it, but also helps them reflect on their actions and advises on how to be better and what strategies they can have to improve their academic performance, achieving a change of attitude in the students with whom he talks.”

The third nominee was Grace VerWeire from the University of Buffalo.  One nominator said, “Grace has had a unique impact on the student body by personally inspiring academic excellence in her peers, role modelling courage and honesty, and volunteering to create and implement new initiatives that will certainly outlast her time on campus.”  They continue by saying, “Grace recently changed her major to Law and has shown a potent and steadfast commitment to ethics in many realms. Her interest in studying law comes from a profound commitment to universal justice, inspired by her lived experiences and the hardships of those close to her. She knits the values of her ambassadorship with her outside life, speaking out with care and determination when she sees her peers and colleagues being led down the path to academic dishonesty – just recently, Grace thwarted an entire class from using a group chat to share test answers, and she reflects on that experience with pride and satisfaction.”

These three students give me much hope for our future in building a culture of academic integrity.  The award for the Student of Merit went to Tushita Tandon from the University of California, San Diego

The ICAI Culture of Integrity Award recognizes one campus or institution for their outstanding ability to create a culture of integrity during the previous academic year.  The Culture of Integrity award is intended for institutions who have had success with a program or initiative to create or mold a culture of integrity among the constituents of their own institution.

The first nominee for the culture of integrity award was The University of South Carolina.  The nominator stated, “our office’s approach to addressing academic misconduct during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and online learning was to cultivate a culture of integrity by ensuring that it was a campus effort. This was achieved in numerous ways with the central goal of prioritizing proactive measures rather than focusing on reactive measures for academic integrity.”  They also stated, “In the summer of 2021, our office revised the University’s Honor Code to proactively combat the issues of contract cheating and study sites.  Lastly, Since the start of the Spring 2021 semester, our office has facilitated 13 virtual sessions for our certificate of completion program through the Center for Teaching Excellence. The certificate, Fostering Proactive Learning Environments (FPLE), has served to effectively train faculty on proactive academic integrity strategies aligned with pedagogical approaches and addressing behaviors of academic misconduct.”

The second nominee was University of Monterrey (UDEM).  The nominator stated, “We particularly highlight UDEM efforts to work day by day to accomplish its mission of strengthening the culture of academic integrity in the university community in an intentional, holistic and sustained strategy through its Center for Integrity and in turn achieve three objectives: to have an honest campus free of corruption, to maintain synergy with educational institutions and civil organizations in favor of integrity and legality, and to conduct research in this area as well as offer courses and consultancies to promote upright behavior through its ethics institute.”  A fellow institution said of UDEM, “UDEM has collaborated in a biannual publication that seeks to promote the topic of academic integrity in educational institutions in Latin America. And the members of the UDEM Integrity Center are genuinely concerned about students and how to ensure that they experience the university with academic integrity. This Center has sought to promote the values of academic integrity through an Honor Code, campaigns and activities for students, and training programs for professors.”

The third nominee was Penn State University.  A nominee said, “the University has had, for many years, local cultures of integrity that have been formed and maintained by administrators and educators who have published, presented, and led within their local integrity communities. The rise of the COVID-19 pandemic made obvious the need for a more cohesive culture of integrity. University leadership established a committee charged with providing guidance to both educators and students across the Penn State community. Those efforts led to many wonderful resources, new modes for collaborative efforts, and a sincere interest in a cohesive culture of integrity, from which have grown a new web of initiatives which stretch across the university and now serve as the enhanced foundation for our cohesive culture of integrity.”  Two specific initiatives are the University Academic Integrity Leadership Community and the Academic Integrity Digital Workflow Application.

These institutions are all role models for how we can all build a culture of integrity. The winner of the Culture of Integrity award was University of Monterrey (UDEM).

The ICAI Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes and honors academic and practitioner members of ICAI who have made significant contributions to academic integrity over their lifetimes. Award recipients represent the most influential individuals in academic integrity. It is the highest honor to be given by ICAI. The Lifetime Achievement Award is intended for individuals with at least 10 years of documented accomplishments in academic integrity and who have had a significant impact on a large number of individuals and organizations.

The recipient of the ICAI lifetime achievement award for this year has had over forty years of experience in higher education encouraging integrity throughout his work.  He was involved in the initial development of the Academic Integrity Policy back in 2012 at his current institution.  The committee’s work led to the development of a policy that has been embraced by faculty, staff, and students, on UA’s campus, and it is still in place today. Additionally, key elements of the policy have been discussed and utilized by other universities.  Five years later, he assessed faculty buy-in to the policy.

Though his tenure, he has published multiple times in academic integrity and ethics while also being a common presenter at ICAI conferences.   His nominator states, “he has relentlessly advocated to keep academic integrity at the forefront of campus-wide discussions throughout his career.” It goes on to say, “his commitment to this issue has impacted our campus at all levels and his work will felt for years to come.” Another nominator states, “this individual’s commitment to academic integrity is evident through his research, teaching, and service to his college and other colleges and universities.”

It is with great respect for decades of service to higher education and academic integrity that the ICAI lifetime achievement award was awarded to Timothy Paul Cronan of the University of Arkansas.

I want to thank everyone who took part in the nomination process.  We are excited to have these annual awards back to be able to truly honor those individuals and institutions doing superb work.

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