Academic Honesty and Integrity

Overview

All students must read and adhere to these academic policies in all FIL courses, whether they contain production, writing, or cinema studies. Failure to comply with the academic or production policies outlined in this document may result in disciplinary actions, including grade reduction, probation and even expulsion from the Film BA, BFA, or MFA degree programs.

Professional Behavior

Respect

Students will treat classmates, faculty, staff, and student workers with the utmost respect. This includes respecting the creative activity, expertise, and professional experience of another person. UCF Film operates with generational agnosticism, recognizing and respecting the experience, expertise, and technical abilities of all generations, along with their unique approaches, beliefs, and sensitivities.

Sexual and Gender-Based Harrasment

This will not be tolerated between students or between students and faculty or staff. Read more about Let’s Be Clear, UCF’s Sexual and Gender Harassment policies. Know your options for reporting such behavior. If you report sexual or gender-based harassment to a faculty or staff member, they are required by law to file a report.

Social Media

Students are encouraged to use social media responsibly and in ways that are respectful of the entire university community. Students will respect the closed community of the classroom and conduct constructive criticism of their peers within this setting, rather than in public, online forums. Similarly, students are expected to address grievances with classmates, faculty, staff, etc. using the appropriate administrative channels, rather than through social media.

Honest and Integrity

Attendance

Students are expected to attend class in person, online, or in mixed mode, according to the policies outlined in your instructor’s syllabus. Missing class to work on another student’s film will not be counted as an excused absence.

Use of Artifical Intelligence (AI)

Each instructor may or may not permit specific uses of AI in assignments. Students are only permitted to use AI tools in the manner and means described in the assignments. Any attempt to represent AI output inappropriately as original work will be treated as plagiarism.

Crediting Others

Students are required to credit all collaborators, volunteers, and co-authors in their work. Creative projects made with support from the UCF Film Program are required to include the school’s official logo at the end for exhibition or streaming purposes. Support includes, but is not limited to, use of production equipment and facilities, or faculty oversight.

Please see the Credits on Student Productions article for further details.

Plagiarism

Academic dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated. If you are uncertain as to what constitutes academic dishonesty, please consult the Golden Rule, the University of Central Florida’s Student Handbook, for further details.  Violations of these rules will result in a record of the infraction being placed in your file and receiving a zero on the work in question AT A MINIMUM.  At the instructor’s discretion, you may also receive a failing grade for the course.  Confirmation of such incidents can also result in expulsion from the university.  If discovered years later that you plagiarized faculty may still contact the Student Conduct Center and ask for an investigation that, depending on the outcome, could revoke your degree.

Examples of Plagiarism in Creative Assignments

• Borrowing or rewriting a story without attribution to the author and their expressed written
• permission to use it (where applicable).
• Adapting a film or television show without attribution to the author and their expressed
  written permission to use it (where applicable).
• Adapting or revising parts of a short story, novel, or screenplay without attribution to the
  author and their expressed written permission to use it (where applicable).
• Copying dialogue from any source (short story, novel, screenplay, TV show, etc.) without
  attribution to the author and their expressed written permission to use it (where applicable).
• Copying, rewriting, or adapting any portion of content found online, even if it’s free or
  technically unpublished, without attribution to the author and their expressed written
  permission to use it (where applicable).
• Re-writing and resubmitting work in a class that you already submitted for credit in another
  class (this is considered self-plagiarism). While the film faculty acknowledges the evolution of
  a script or film over time, the repurposing of an assignment (or portion of an assignment) in
  one class for another class is not permitted unless that assignment or course syllabus explicitly
  states otherwise.

Film Content, Screening, and Exhibitions

Content Restrictions

As a program area, UCF Film and Mass Media does not place uniform restrictions on the visual, auditory, or implied content of film productions and screenplays. However, individual instructors-of-record have the right to set parameters and limitations on what is permissible in their courses. Students are obligated to adhere to content restrictions and cannot appeal such limitations.

Violations of Risk Management Policies

These policies detail specific kinds of production activities that are either prohibited or not covered by UCF’s production insurance without an official review process. Failure to follow these policies or procedures will result in disciplinary actions, which can include grade reduction, probation, or expulsion from the Film BA, BFA, or MFA degree programs.

A detailed description of policies and procedures can be found in the Risk Management Policies section of this handbook.

Film Screenings & Exhibitions

Students enrolled in courses with an exhibition component are not entitled to screen their work if they do not adhere to course policies and deadlines or their work fails to meet standards established by the instructor. Instructors-of-record have the final say and may rescind a student’s screening privileges at any time. Students may screen only the version of their films approved by their instructor-of-record from the course in which they were created.