The International Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson University is a consortium of learning institutions dedicated to the belief that integrity is at the heart of the educational enterprise. ICAI provides a forum to identify, affirm, and promote the values of academic integrity among students, faculty, teachers, and administrators. ICAI is a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization in the United States. With over 240 institutional member organizations and nearly 1,500 individual representatives, ICAI shares with peers and colleagues its collective experience and expertise on the latest research and methodology in the field of academic integrity. ICAI and its members are responsible for surveying more than 250,000 undergraduate and graduate students on the current climate of academic integrity, primarily in the United States and Canada.
Mission
ICAI is the premier worldwide organization dedicated to issues of academic integrity. The principal focus of ICAI is to provide resources and catalyze commitment to academic integrity in educational institutions, with emphasis on secondary and higher education. ICAI fosters the development of research, services, and products that promote the standards and practices of academic integrity. In addition, ICAI hosts an annual conference that gathers its members from around the world to discuss the latest research, standards, and best practices. The Center primarily serves the great diversity of North American secondary and higher education, but is increasingly supporting members throughout the world who share its vision and goals. ICAI also seeks to equip its members to address academic integrity issues created by emerging technologies.
History
The first official CAI Annual Conference was held in March 1993 at the University of Maryland. By the time of the conference in October 1995 at Georgetown University, membership had grown from 24 institutional members to 66 schools. Duke University established the Kenan Ethics Program in 1997, an initiative that would later become the Kenan Institute for Ethics under the leadership of Dr. Elizabeth Kiss. Prior to the establishment of the Institute, CAI Executive Director Sally Cole and Dr. Kiss discussed the possibility of CAI moving to North Carolina and affiliating with the Kenan Ethics Program. In the summer of 1997, CAI moved from Stanford University to Duke University and began a three-year affiliation with the Kenan Ethics Program. With continued support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, in 1998 CAI launched a project to identify and describe the “fundamental values of academic integrity” and their implications for daily campus life. One year later, CAI released a report on The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity: Honesty, Trust, Respect, Fairness, Responsibility to more than 4,000 college and university presidents, with endorsements from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and twenty-three higher education organizations. In 2013 The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity was revised and updated with the assistance of its members to add a new, sixth value: courage. By 2004, CAI began promoting consulting services provided by its Advisory Council members and launched a student summer internship program. CAI increased the size and scope of the annual conference to an international level, established an “expert registry” of consultants and presenters, and increased visibility and prominence in print and broadcast media. A thorough business analysis led the Center and the Kenan Institute to re-examine the strengths and weaknesses of their partnership. To that end, a “leadership group” composed of founders and past and current presidents - Don McCabe, Bill Kibler, Mary Olson, Jim Lancaster, Patrick Drinan, Mark Hyatt and Katie Meriano - assessed new opportunities for partnerships that would allow CAI to enhance service to its members and the higher education community. CAI officially moved to its former home at Clemson on July 2, 2007 where it partnered with the Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics. In 2010, in order to reflect an expanding membership and international reach, CAI officially became the International Center for Academic Integrity. The first conference to take place internationally was held in Markham, Ontario, Canada in October 2011 in collaboration with the University of Toronto. ICAI celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2012 and has since continued to grow internationally with regional conferences in 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa and in Dubai in 2015. In 2018, ICAI became an independent organization, leaving Clemson to incorporate as a nonprofit group.
