On Plagiarism:

As an academic community devoted to the life of the mind, Middlebury College requires of every student complete intellectual honesty in the preparation of papers, laboratory reports, performances, and other academic exercises. The habit of intellectual honesty is essential to both intellectual and moral growth. Effective evaluation of student work and helpful instruction can take place only in an environment where intellectual honesty is respected.
Plagiarism is a violation of intellectual honesty. Plagiarism is passing off another person's work as one's own. It is taking and presenting as one's own the ideas, research, writings, creations, or inventions of another. It makes no difference whether the source is a student or a professional in some field. For example, in written work, whenever as much as a sentence or key phrase is taken from the work of another without specific citation of the source, the issue of plagiarism arises.
Paraphrasing is the close restatement of another's idea using approximately the language of the original. Paraphrasing without acknowledgment of authorship is also plagiarism and is as serious a violation as an unacknowledged quotation.
The individual student is responsible for ensuring that his or her work does not involve plagiarism. Ignorance of the nature of plagiarism or of College rules may not be offered as a mitigating circumstance. All incoming new students are required to sign a statement on which there is a definition of plagiarism and mention of the penalty for plagiarism. Students with uncertainties and questions about matters relating to footnoting and citing sources should consult with the course instructor for whom they are preparing work.
Graded assignments should be the work of the individual student, unless otherwise directed by the instructor. At the beginning of each semester, instructors should discuss with their students the faculty's policies governing plagiarism as they relate to a particular course. It is the student's responsibility to seek clarification about such matters as paraphrasing lecture notes, giving proper citations and footnotes, and proper recognition of joint work on homework assignments and laboratory reports. A paper submitted to meet the requirements of a particular course is assumed to be work completed for that course; the same paper, or substantially similar papers, may not be used to meet the requirements of two different courses, in the same or different terms, without the prior consent of each faculty member involved. Students incorporating similar material in more than one paper are required to confirm each professor's expectations in advance.
Faculty members are obligated to report cases of plagiarism, and all other forms of academic dishonesty, except cheating on examinations, to the secretary of the College, who serves as chair of the Judicial Review Board. A faculty member may handle a case of academic dishonesty if, and only if, the matter is not serious enough to warrant any grade change or penalty. If a faculty member believes a student should be penalized, the case must be referred to the appropriate judicial body.
Examination Procedure under the Middlebury College Honor Code:
Faculty Responsibility
No proctors will be present during examinations, unless specific authorization has been given by the Judicial Review Board. The Judicial Review Board may grant an instructor permission to proctor an examination in his or her course when the instructor has demonstrated to the board that there is a reasonable suspicion that there are students cheating in examinations in the course. Authorization will apply only to a single examination and must be renewed in every case by the same procedure. When an instructor's presence in the exam is required because of the nature of the exam (e.g., slides), the instructor should receive permission from the chair of the Judicial Review Board and notify the class in advance. The instructor will remain in the examination room for no more than 15 minutes after the start of an examination. He or she may return during the examination to check on any further problems that students may have with examination questions or general procedures, only if he or she announces his or her intention to do so at the beginning of the examination. Instructors will remain in the general area for questions for the duration of the examination period.
Student Responsibility
During the examination, each student will have complete freedom of action providing he or she does not interfere with the work of others. Except in the case of take-home examinations, no examination papers will be taken from the room except to consult with the instructor. The student must write in full on his or her examination paper and sign the statement, "I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this examination/paper." Examinations that do not have the signed pledge will not be graded. An examination is any quiz, preannounced test, hourly examination, or final examination. Take-homes will ordinarily be considered as examinations. In every case an instructor will make clear before giving an examination what he or she considers to be authorized and unauthorized aid. Instructors may require the pledge on other graded work (laboratory reports, homework, etc.). Cheating will be defined as giving or attempting to give or receive during an examination any aid unauthorized by the instructor. Those who cheat are obliged to report their own offense to the Student Judicial Council. Any member of the College community (student, faculty, or administrator) who is aware of an infraction of the honor system is morally obligated to report it, either directly to the Student Judicial Council or to the Student Judicial Council through the dean of student affairs or an instructor.