Sanctions

Various sanctions exist which may be applied in response to an act of academic dishonesty. The severity of sanctions will correlate to the severity of the offense. Judgment of the severity of an academic dishonesty offense is the responsibility of the faculty member. The faculty member is encouraged to seek counsel of faculty colleagues, the Registrar, Dean of Faculty (undergraduate)/ Dean of the Graduate School (graduate) or the Dean of Students in gaining perspective concerning the severity of an offense.

All grade-related sanctions shall be levied by the faculty member teaching the course within which the offense occurred.

The following list articulates the sanctions which may be levied in response to acts of academic dishonesty.

1. A warning indicating to the student, faculty, and administration knowledge of the incident; this will ordinarily be accompanied by a requirement that the student redo the work if the infraction is related to a course assignment. Included will be notification that another act of academic dishonesty will result in a more severe sanction.
2. A letter grade reduction on the assignment. This also will ordinarily be accompanied by a requirement to redo the work.
3. A failing grade for the assignment. This applies in cases where the faculty member chooses not to allow redoing the work.
4. A failing grade for the course. This would be a suitable sanction for a serious case or for repeated cases of less extreme infractions.
5. Suspension from the university for a specified minimum period of time. This sanction will ordinarily be applied when, in the estimation of the Dean of Students and the Dean of Faculty (undergraduate)/Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the MA Program (graduate), a pattern of misconduct is so chronic or severe that separation from the campus community is warranted. If serious enough, a single case of academic dishonesty can result in suspension. This could occur in the case of indisputable willful intent by the student to commit an academically dishonest act, such as altering a professor’s grade record or maliciously damaging academic work of another individual. Suspension may take effect immediately. Continuing attendance at the university may be permitted during an appeal. The minimum period of suspension will be the balance of the current block or semester. Ordinarily the period of suspension will continue through the entire following block or semester.
6. Expulsion from the university. This sanction is used in the event of extraordinarily grave cases of academic dishonesty or when less severe cases of dishonesty persist after one returns from a period of suspension for academic dishonesty.