academic misconduct in LS&A

academic misconduct in LS&A
INTEGRITY

The undergraduate academic community, like all communities, functions best when its members treat one another with honesty, fairness, respect, and trust. The College holds all members of its community to high standards of scholarship and integrity. To accomplish its mission of providing an optimal educational environment and developing leaders of society, the College promotes the assumption of personal responsibility and integrity and prohibits all forms of academic dishonesty. Conduct that violates the academic integrity and ethical standards of the College community cannot be tolerated and will result in serious consequences and disciplinary action.

Examples of Academic Misconduct

Cheating

Cheating is committing fraud and/or deception on a record, report, paper, computer assignment, examination, or any other course requirement. Examples of cheating include:

Obtaining work or information from someone else and submitting it under one's own name.
Using unauthorized notes, study aids, or information from another student or student's paper on an examination.
Altering a graded work after it has been returned, then submitting the work for regrading.
Allowing another person to do one's work and to submit the work under one's own name.
Submitting substantially the same paper for two or more classes in the same or different terms without the expressed approval of each instructor.
Fabricating data which were not gathered in accordance with appropriate methods for collecting or generating data and failing to include a substantially accurate account of the method by which the data were gathered or collected.
Submitting, as your own work, a computer program or part thereof which is not the result of your own thought or efforts. Contributions to a computer program from external sources must be acknowledges and properly documented.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is representing someone else's ideas, words, statements or other works as one's own without proper acknowledgment or citation. Examples of plagiarism are:

Copying word for word or lifting phrases or a special term from a source or reference not without proper attribution.
Paraphrasingusing another person's written words or ideas, albeit in one's own words, as if they were one's own thought.
Borrowing facts, statistics, or other illustrative material without proper reference, unless the information is common knowledge, in common public use.

Internet Plagiarism

Students may not use Internet source material, in whole or in part, without careful and specific reference to the source. All utilization of the Internet must be thoroughly documented.

Unacceptable Collaboration

Collaboration is unacceptable when a student works with another or others on a project, then submits a written report which is represented explicitly or implicitly as the student's own work. Using answers, solutions, or ideas that are the result of collaboration without citing the fact of collaboration is improper, as is engaging in collaboration when expressly instructed to do your own work.

Falsification of Data, Records, and Official Documents

Fabrication of data
Altering documents affecting academic records
Misrepresentation of academic status
Forging a signature of authorization or falsifying information on an official academic document, grade report, letter of recommendation/reference, letter of permission, petition, or any document designed to meet or exempt a student from an established College or University academic regulation.

Aiding and Abetting Dishonesty

Providing material or information to another person with knowledge that these materials or information will be used improperly. This includes both deliberate and inadvertent actions.

Unauthorized or Maliscious Interference/Tampering with Computer Property

Unauthorized or malicious interference or tampering with computer property is considered an academic offense and, as such, is subject to College judicial sanction.

Procedures for Alleged Academic Misconduct in the College of LS&A

Initiation of Complaint

Cases of alleged academic misconduct involving LS&A students are to be referred to the Assistant Dean for Student Academic Affairs. In some instances, however, faculty may elect to resolve cases at their level. Prior to exercising sanctions or a formal complaint, all faculty are encouraged to call the Office of the Assistant Dean for consultation.

When a faculty member resolves a case. In those instances when a faculty member elects to resolve a case of academic misconduct, the following conditions apply:

the student is fully apprised of the evidence and allegations
the student accepts responsibility for the incident
the student accepts the sanction imposed by the faculty member.

For purposes of information, faculty members are requested to send a brief summary of the case resolution to the Assistant Dean's office. In such cases, no further sanctions will be imposed by the Assistant Dean's office; however, a record of the case will be kept on file during the student's enrollment.

A student may bring a case to the attention of the Assistant Dean. For example, the student may feel that a faculty member has imposed an inappropriate sanction. When this occurs, the case will be fully investigated, all relevant information will be reviewed, principles of fairness and due process will apply, and disposition of the student complaint will be based upon its merits.

When a case is referred to the Assistant Dean's Office. Cases referred to the Assistant Dean should be in writing and submitted as soon as possible from the date of occurrence. Barring unforeseen circumstances, cases are to be resolved within the academic term in which the incident occurs. Once a matter has been referred to the Assistant Dean, it may not be withdrawn without the approval of the Assistant Dean.

The Assistant Dean shall review the facts of the alleged incident, including statements of the reporting individual, the instructor(s), and any supporting material. A student, by request, can have access to all relevant materials in the complaint. If the Assistant Dean determines that there is cause to pursue the matter, the student will be notified by letter. This correspondence will include the date of the incident (if known), the course and instructor, the nature of the alleged violation, and a copy of the Academic Misconduct Procedures.

Meeting with the Assistant Dean for Student Academic Affairs

The student will be asked to make arrangements for an appointment with the Assistant Dean to discuss the case as soon as possible (preferably within two weeks), at which time the student may present any relevant material or statements in his/her behalf. The student will have the right, prior to the meeting, to review relevant original materials in the Office of the Assistant Dean and to obtain copies of such materials if desired.

In meeting with the student, the Assistant Dean will describe the charges made, detail the evidence supporting those charges, and review the range of College sanctions. This is an opportunity for the student to be heard and to present his/her side of the incident. If the student does not make timely arrangements for a meeting to take place, the Assistant Dean may make a determination on the basis of the evidence presented.

Sanctions

The Assistant Dean has the authority to determine, based upon the information available, whether a violation of academic integrity has occurred. The Assistant Dean shall inform the student by letter of the decision and the sanction, if any, to be imposed. Sanctions that may be imposed by the Assistant Dean include, but are not limitied to:

a letter of reprimand
workshop attendance
community service
a defined period of probation with the attachment of conditions
a defined period of suspension, with or without the attachment of conditions
permanent expulsion from the College
notation on the official record
withholding of a degree, or
any combination of the previously listed sanctions.

When an instructor has cause to question a student's work based upon inferential circumstances but guilt cannot be established, the Assistant Dean may send a "letter of warning" to the student. Any grade entered for a student in a course in which an allegation of academic misconduct is pending, whether for a specific course assignment or the final course grade, is subject to modification after all proceedings and appeals are concluded. If the student is guilty of academic misconduct, the course instructor is empowered to determine the effect this violation will have on grades assigned to the student for either specific course assignments or the final course grade.

The College Academic Judiciary Committee

In exceptional cases, the student may submit a written appeal to the College Academic Judiciary Committee. The student must submit this written appeal in a timely manner. The written notice of appeal must state what is being appealedwhether the finding of academic dishonesty, the sanction imposed, or bothand must describe in detail the grounds for the appeal.

The College Academic Judiciary Committee has sole discretion to determine if sufficient grounds exist for consideration of an appeal. If the request for appeal has merit, the College Academic Judiciary Committee shall review the appeal as soon as practical after it has been filed.

Following its review, the College Academic Judiciary Committee may sustain or reverse the finding of academic dishonesty. If the finding of academic dishonesty stands, the Committee may sustain, modify, or increase the sanction imposed. The student will be informed by letter of the Committee's decision.

General Considerations

A student charged with academic misconduct may not change registration in the course (e.g., drop the course) in which a charge is pending or in which a finding of academic misconduct has been made.

Sanctions specified by the Assistant Dean or by the College Academic Judiciary Committee (if an appeal has been filed) shall take effect as specified in writing to the student.

All materials relating to an allegation of academic dishonesty will be kept in confidence in the Office of the Assistant Dean for Student Academic Affairs.

All references to the Assistant Dean in these procedures include the designee of the Assistant Dean.

This information is also available online:

Academic Judiciary Manual of Procedures

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/saa/standards/acadjudic.html

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