Institutional Integrity
The Statement of Ethical Values summarizes the institution’s core values and relates specifically to communicating and implementing the Seminary’s instructional vision, mission, and purpose. These values offer a shared blueprint for the continuous improvement of instructional programming that ensures the personal accountability for ethical choices. It reads as follows.
The Statement of Ethical Values
The Mississippi Baptist Seminary community is committed to the highest ethical standards of teaching, research, service, and social action in fulfillment of the mission of our institution. All policies, procedures, programming, and operational standards adhere to the application of the following ethical values in our individual and collective work as members of this educational community.
We are committed to:
Academic Rigor
We will teach conceptual understanding, critical analysis, fluency, procedural skill, documentation, and application.
Accountability
We will be accountable as individuals, as citizens, and as members of the Seminary community for our ethical conduct and for compliance with applicable state and federal laws, policies, and directives.
Biblical and Scriptural Authority
As stated in the Baptist Articles of Faith, “We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error, for its matter; that it reveals the principles by which God will judge us; and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried.”
Historical Repentance and Faith
As stated in the Baptist Articles of Faith, “We believe that repentance and faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby, being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and relying on him alone as the only and all-sufficient Savior.”
Integrity
As members of the Christian faith, we will conduct ourselves with integrity in our dealings with and on behalf of the Mississippi Baptist Seminary.
Service
Accepting the call of Mark 10:43-45, we will serve the least, the weak, the poor, and the needy in our community, without fail, and in the spirit of one accord with community partners, civic agencies, and social organizations.
Social Justice
We will teach and demonstrate the concepts of fair and just relations between the individual and society in all Seminary programs and services, and we will provide opportunities for activism and engagement to fight societal ills in promotion of economic justice and equal rights for all.
Similarly, The Code of Ethics reiterates the ethical values by which faculty govern classroom instructional practices. These are the minimum standards of acceptable conduct used to establish classroom decorum and academic integrity. It reads as follows.
CODE OF ETHICS
Academic Integrity
Mississippi Baptist Seminary assumes that all its students desire to pursue all academic work with honesty and scholarly integrity. Breaches of academic honesty and integrity are infringements of the mutual faith and trust essential to the academic enterprise. Activities that have the effect or intention of interfering with education, pursuit of knowledge, or fair evaluation of a student’s performance are prohibited. Examples of activities include, but are not limited to, the following definitions.
• Cheating
Using or attempting to use unauthorized assistance, material, or study aids in examinations or other academic work, or preventing or attempting to prevent another from using authorized assistance, material, or study aids. Examples: using a cheat sheet; altering a graded exam and resubmitting it for a better grade, etc.
• Plagiarism
Using the ideas, data, or language of another without specific and proper acknowledgement. Examples: misrepresenting another’s work or using someone else’s ideas (paper, report, article, or computer work) as one’s own original creation and submitting it for an assignment; failing to cite a reference or to use quotation marks where appropriate, etc.
• Fabrication
Submitting contrived or altered information in any academic exercise. Examples: making up data, fudging data; citing nonexistent or irrelevant articles, etc.
• Multiple Submissions
Submitting, without prior permission, any work submitted to fulfill another academic requirement. Example: submitting the same paper for two different classes without the instructor’s express prior approval.
• Misrepresentation of Academic Records
Misrepresenting or tampering with or attempting to tamper with any portion of a student’s transcripts or academic record, either before or after coming to Mississippi Baptist Seminary. Examples: forging a Registration Form or a grade report; tampering with computer records, etc.
• Facilitating Academic Dishonesty
Knowingly helping or attempting to help another person violate any provision of this code. Example: working together on an exam or others’ assignments intended to be an individual project without the instructor’s express or prior approval.
• Unfair Advantage
Attempting to gain unauthorized advantage over fellow students in an academic exercise. Examples: gaining or providing unauthorized access to examination materials (either past or present); obstructing or interfering with another student’s efforts in an academic exercise; lying about a need for an extension for an exam or paper; continuing to write even when time is up during an exam etc.
• Computer Crimes
Damaging or modifying computer programs without permission. Examples: piracy of copyright protected software; hacking; constructing viruses; knowingly introducing viruses into a system; copying programs and data belonging to others, and so on. Those students whose work definitively can be shown to breach academic honesty or scholarly integrity will face academic investigation. Sanctions will be imposed, ranging from course failure to dismissal from the school.