Maryellen Martirano is on a mission, to discuss the new academic integrity code at Pace University.

Martirano spoke to an audience on Feb.16, 2018, in Gottesman, giving details about the new code that was put into place last September as well as answering any questions that faculty and students had.

“The code defines things such as plagiarism and cheating, and other stuff like that,” said Martirano, a Lecturer at Pace for nine years. “These are things that are common sense and shouldn’t come as a surprise. Students need to understand that there are consequences if you get caught.”

The academic integrity code defines 12 categories of misconduct ranging from cheating to destroying academic material. The full list can be found on the Pace website.

Aside from the code, Martirano also discussed the academic conduct committee which she resides over. The purpose of the committee it to decide the punishments of the student who breaks the academic code.

Martirano believes that the committee makes the punishment process more objective. In years past an accuser would have to go in front on their department chair to discuss their punishment.

“There could be a certain comradery within the department, we don’t wan there to be any biases, Martirano said. “We don’t want someone’s family decided if that student is guilty or not. We really want it to be fair.”

Aside from Martirano, there are ten other people serving on the committee. Five faculty members, and five students.

Harshini Rajkumar is a student at Pace who serves on the committee  feels she needs to be on the committee because it isn’t fair if the verdict is only coming from faculty members.

“As a student if I had to put myself in the shoes of someone being accused I would personally feel better not just department chairs judging me,” Rajkumar said. “I would want to have students hear my perspective because they would understand me better than professors.”

The committee was also rolled out this past September, and they have already dealt of eight cases of student misconduct. Martirano is very pleased of how the process has gone.

“Every case between the students have been settled,” Martirano said. “So, it really has been running smoothly so far.”

However, in order for the committee to work, professors have to report the incident, and some professors have chosen to deal with the issue themselves.

Martirano is holding these meetings so every professor will choose to report the incident so that it can be handled by the committee. Martirano is planning of speaking to faculty and students at the Lubin School of Business and the Student Government Association sometime soon.