The Daily Bulletin Archive

Upon the recommendation of the College Senate, President Conway-Turner approved a revised Academic Misconduct Policy (PDF, 128 KB) on June 14, 2021. The approach to academic misconduct embedded in the revised policy is different from that in the previous policy in that it encourages faculty to see instances of academic misconduct as opportunities to educate our students rather than punish them. To this end, according to the new policy, instructors are only permitted to impose a sanction on a student if the student’s act of academic misconduct is found to be intentional. Otherwise, instructors should educate students on how to avoid similar types of misconduct in the future.

The revised academic misconduct policy also embeds a new consultative process for resolving alleged instances of academic misconduct. The campus community is encouraged to consult the Academic Standards website for an overview of this process. As part of this new process, instructors are obliged to report all findings of intentional or unintentional academic misconduct, as well as any recommended sanctions for intentional acts of academic misconduct, to their respective department chair, dean’s office, and the Academic Standards Office. Recommended instructor sanctions are considered pending, and should not be imposed, until the instructor hears from the Academic Standards Office that (i) the pending sanction(s) will not be replaced by a stronger sanction and (ii) the student is not appealing the instructor’s finding of academic misconduct and/or the pending sanction(s). Instructors should not submit a final grade for a student who is alleged to have engaged in academic misconduct until the process for resolving that allegation is complete.

Questions about how to resolve alleged instances of academic misconduct may be addressed to Julian Cole, interim director of academic standards.