Policies

The College is committed to providing an honest and fair learning environment and to preparing students for academic and career success. Students are expected to recognize and uphold standards of intellectual and academic integrity. Integrity means being honest, responsible, respectful, and ethical, and applies whether working independently or collaboratively, regardless of the level of supervision. Integrity and honesty are a part of professionalism and demonstrate employability skills. The College will not tolerate any dishonest practices, including plagiarism, in the academic environment.

Students with any questions regarding academic integrity should speak with their instructor and/or academic support services prior to submitting work.

Definitions

Academic integrity demonstrates personal and professional qualities that show respect and fairness toward themselves and others, and takes responsibility for their actions. Integrity means acting ethically, being honest and responsible, and taking ownership or accountability. Individuals are responsible for their own actions, efforts, and submissions.

Academic dishonesty is defined as the unauthorized use of material on assignments, tests, or other assessments of learning. Examples of academic dishonesty include cheating, plagiarism, or lying.

Cheating is acting dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage.  It includes, but is not limited to, the intent to deceive the instructor in his/her effort to fairly evaluate an academic exercise; the act or intent to copy another student’s work; sharing and/or soliciting information on an assessment; or plagiarism.

Plagiarism can be either deliberate or unintentional, but in either case it is the misrepresentation of another person’s ideas, words, or statistics as your own original work. Intentional plagiarism is a flagrant attempt to deceive the instructor of an assignment by presenting a whole assignment or parts of an assignment that were written by someone else as if it were the student’s original work.

Examples of intentional plagiarism include but are not limited to:

1. Taking passages from articles or books and including them in your paper/assignment/discussion/project without providing proper citations.
2. Taking original ideas from sources and including them in your paper/assignment/discussion/project as if they were your own conclusions.
3. Cutting and pasting material from the Internet into your paper/assignment/discussion/project without citing your sources.
4. Letting someone else write parts of your paper/assignment/discussion/project for you.
5. Buying a paper/assignment/discussion/project from a commercial source and submitting it as your own, or taking a paper from a classmate, friend, or anyone else and submitting it as if you wrote it.
6. Submitting drawings, musical compositions, computer files or any other kinds of material created originally by someone else and claiming or implying that you created it yourself.
7. Using the works (i.e. words, images, other materials) of another person as one's own words without proper citation in any academic assignment. This includes submission (in whole or in part) of any work purchased or downloaded from a Web site or an Internet paper clearinghouse.  
8. Self-plagiarism- submitted work that was previously submitted to the same or different course.
9. If there is any other instance of plagiarism found in the course that is not directly addressed in the above list, the instructor may use his/her discretion as it pertains to his/her program, within reason.

Sanctions

Any student found by a faculty member to have committed academic dishonesty may be subject to the following sanctions. The disciplinary process in areas of academic dishonesty should be learning opportunities for the student to avoid repeated behavior. A faculty member may impose any of the Faculty Sanctions listed below. Faculty are expected to keep their supervisor informed of sanctions for academic dishonesty and will provide documentation to the Dean of Students. The faculty member may recommend to the Dean of Students penalties from the Student Code of Conduct Sanctions be imposed. The Dean of Students keeps a record of Student Code of Conduct violations, and if a student has repeated offenses, the Dean of Students may recommend additional actions and penalties. The maximum penalty is expulsion from the College.

Faculty Sanctions – A faculty member may impose any of the below sanctions based on the severity of the offense.

Academic Warning – A written notice to the student that he/she has violated the academic dishonesty policy.

Grade Adjustment – Lowering of a score on a test or assignment, which could result in a 0 for that assignment.

Discretionary Sanctions – Additional academic assignments determined by the faculty member.

Course Failure – Failure of a student in the course where academic dishonesty has occurred.

Student Code of Conduct Sanctions - A faculty member may recommend sanctions under the Student Code of Conduct based on the severity of the offense.

Appeal of Sanctions for Academic Dishonesty

Students can appeal sanctions imposed for academic dishonesty. Faculty Sanctions may be appealed through the Student Grievance Policy process found on the College website. Student Code of Conduct Sanctions may be appealed by following the Appeals Procedure outlined in the Student Code of Conduct Policy on the College website.

References:    

SACSCOC Standard 10.1, Academic policies

SACSCOC Standard 10.4, Academic governance

Revisions: 08/01/2022 (procedures); 06/13/2019 (policy)