May 2026
When I first started my practicum in the Academic Integrity Office, I thought I was going to spend the semester learning policy, reading through procedures, attending hearings, and joining a few staff meetings. What I did not expect was to walk away with a different understanding of how students experience the institutions we work within.
Here is what this semester taught me: there is a lot of space between academic integrity policy and a student’s understanding of it. More than most people realize.
As a student in the School of Education’s Higher Education Master’s program, I started this practicum with a solid foundation in student development theory and an understanding of the barriers students face. But theory and practice have a way of humbling you. Watching how students interact with academic integrity policy, and recognizing how often confusion, fear, or a lack of clear communication sits at the center of those interactions, pushed my thinking in ways I did not anticipate.
The work stopped feeling like enforcement and started feeling like education. And with that shift came a new kind of challenge: learning to translate complex institutional language into something genuinely digestible, not just for students, but for faculty and staff as well. The language of policy is written legalistically, which is often a deficit for people, and learning to bridge that gap has been one of the most practical and transferable skills I will take from this experience.
That shift from reactive to proactive thinking has changed how I show up in other areas of my work. In my graduate assistantship in academic and career advising for the College of Arts and Sciences and Maxwell, I find myself asking different questions now. Not just what a student is currently experiencing, positive or negative, but what did they need before we got here?
That question feels like the heart of this work to me. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity and for the welcoming environment that made growth possible. A sincere thank you to the Office of Academic Integrity for its guidance and support throughout this semester. This is an experience I will not forget.
If you have any academic integrity questions or concerns, please contact the Academic Integrity Office any time by emailing aio@syr.edu or calling 315-443-5412. Our office is at 550 Bird Library if you would like to stop by for a confidential consultation; we recommend scheduling your appointment in advance.
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