PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING

The College and faculty guarantee the integrity of the academic process. Since cheating and plagiarism are threats to this integrity, all members of the college community must work together to prevent their occurrence.

The instructor in any course assumes the responsibility for fair evaluation of academic progress, and is obligated to explain at the beginning of each course how the College’s policy on cheating and plagiarism applies to that particular course. Students are expected to perform honestly and to work in every way possible to eliminate cheating by any member of a class.

Definitions  Cheating means the giving or receiving of information illicitly with intent to deceive the instructor in his or her effort to grade fairly any academic work. Plagiarism is "to take and use as one’s own the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another" (Oxford English Dictionary). It is plagiarism when one uses direct quotations without proper credit and appropriate quotation marks, and when one uses the ideas of another without proper credit.

Instructors must report all instances of cheating or plagiarism in writing to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Such cases will be handled according to the following procedures:

If upon investigation an instructor determines a student is guilty of the cheating or plagiarism, the instructor will submit a written report of the incident to the Vice President for Academic Affairs with copies to the student and the Registrar. The report will be filed in the student's permanent folder. All cases may be brought to the Academic Policy Committee for a hearing.

The following penalties for cheating and plagiarism will apply:

First Offense The instructor will not give the student any credit for the work involved.

Second Offense The Vice President for Academic Affairs will with draw the student from the course in which the second offense occurred, and the student will receive an "F" in that course.

Third Offense The Vice President for Academic Affairs will suspend the student from the College for at least one semester. The suspension will be effective immediately upon the Vice President's notification to the student and the Registrar.

All decisions may be appealed for review by the Academic Policy Committee. The Academic Policy Committee will review the charges, hear the evidence, and either uphold or overturn the decision. The Academic Policy Committee, however, will not have the right to change the penalty. All decisions of the Academic Policy Committee will be by majority vote.