Elgin Community College's policy is that the consequence for cheating in a course can result in suspension or dismissal from the College. A full description of this policy is in the Elgin Community College Catalog in the section Student Rights and Responsibilities, subsection Student Obligations to the College.
Cheating in a Computer Information Science course WILL result in an automatic failing grade in the course, plus penalties as described in the College's policy above.
The computer code in all lab and program assignments in a computer programming course MUST be the student's own work. The only exception is computer code given by the instructor as part of the assignment, or part of previous classes or assignments in the same semester in the same course.
Under no circumstance should any student represent any computer code not written by oneself as one's own work.
Under no circumstance should you allow another student to copy your computer code. In any case where computer code is found to be copied, both students are considered at fault and both are subject to penalty. It does not matter who copied from whom.
If small portions of computer code found in texts or from other sources are used, proper attribution should always be given in the comment section of the computer code handed in as the assignment, as clearly as possible to remove any question about the origin of the code.
If you are in doubt about whether any section of computer code from another source can be used, ask your instructor. If you cannot ask the instructor, assume the answer is "NO".