MA 310 Mathematical Programming 2 - Fall 2025

At the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), “Work for grade” is defined as any work presented to an instructor for a formal grade or undertaken in satisfaction of a requirement for successful completion of a course or degree requirement. All work submitted for a grade is considered the student’s work. “Student’s own work” means that he or she has composed the work from his or her general accumulation of knowledge and skill except as clearly and fully documented and that it has been composed especially for the current assignment. No work previously submitted in any course at VMI or elsewhere will be resubmitted or reformatted for submission in a current course without the specific approval of the instructor.

In all work for grade, failure to distinguish between the student’s own work and ideas and the work and ideas of others is known as plagiarism. Proper documentation clearly and fully identifies the sources of all borrowed ideas, quotations, or other assistance. The student is referred to the VMI-authorized handbook for rules concerning quotations, paraphrases, and documentation.

In all written work for grade, the student must include the words “HELP RECEIVED” conspicuously on the document. He or she must then do one of two things: (1) state “none”, meaning that no help was received except as documented in work; or (2) explain in detail the nature of the help received. In oral work for grade, the student must make the same declaration before beginning the presentation. Admission of help received may result in a lower grade but will not result in prosecution for an honor violation.

Students are prohibited from discussing the contents of a quiz/exam until it is returned to them or final course grades are posted. This enjoinder does not imply that any inadvertent expression or behavior that might indicate one’s feeling about the test should be considered a breach of honor. The real issue is whether students received information not available to everyone else in the class, which would give them an unfair advantage. If a student inadvertently gives or receives information, the incident must be reported to the professor and the Honor Court.

Each student bears the responsibility for familiarizing himself or herself thoroughly with the policies stated in this section, with any supplementary statement regarding work for grade expressed by the academic department in which he or she is taking a course, and with any special conditions provided in writing by the professor for a given assignment. The student should consult the course’s instructor if there is any doubt or uncertainty about the correct policy interpretation. However, there should be no confusion on the basic principle that it is never acceptable to submit someone else’s work, written or otherwise, formally graded or not, as one’s own.

The violation by a student of any of these policies will, if he or she is found guilty by the Honor Court, result in his or her being dismissed from VMI. Neither ignorance nor professed confusion about the correct interpretation of these policies is an excuse.

The Department of Applied Mathematics faculty fully supports the Institute Work for Grade Policy as passed by the Academic Board and approved by the Superintendent. Because of this, faculty in our department will promptly contact any cadet who has submitted work for grade without the expression “HELP RECEIVED” followed by the word “none” or an explanation of the nature of the help received and the cadet’s signature. The faculty member will inform the cadet that the work will not be graded until the cadet adds the required “HELP RECEIVED” statement.

It is our department’s policy that any major assignment designated as individual work, submitted for grade, precludes the aid of tutors or peer collaboration. This includes in-class tests, quizzes, computer code, or other large projects. Instructors may state otherwise in the course syllabus, although this is rare. For assignments designated as group work, these assignments must have help-received statements that reflect how each group member contributed to the work and are signed by all group members.

For smaller graded assignments, such as regular homework, the instructor will set the policy in the course syllabus regarding tutors and peer collaboration. Tutors and peer collaboration are always authorized for assigned work that is not graded, such as ungraded homework or drill exercises.