ACADEMIC HONESTY

• The student and faculty member must be present during the entire hearing, excluding deliberations. Each may be assisted during the hearing by an advisor from among current students, faculty, administration, or staff. This individual serves in an advisory capacity only. They may not actively participate in the hearing. • The hearing board shall have three College business days from the time it is convened to decide. The student, faculty member, and department chair/ program director are to be notified in writing regarding the board’s decision.

RECORDS

The Grievance Hearing Board is the final source of appeal. The APUS serves as a repository of all records that are kept of the grievance. After the dissolution of the board, a repository of grievance records will be kept in the Registrar’s Office for five years following a student’s last date of attendance at the College.

Lebanon Valley College expects its students to uphold the principles of academic honesty. Violations of these principles will not be tolerated. Students shall neither hinder nor unfairly assist the efforts of other students to complete their work. All individual work that a student produces and submits as a course assignment must be the student’s own. Cheating and plagiarism are acts of academic dishonesty. Cheating is an act that deceives or defrauds. It includes, but is not limited to, looking at another’s exam or quiz, using unauthorized materials during an exam or quiz, colluding on assignments without the permission or knowledge of the instructor, and furnishing false information to receive special consideration, such as postponement of an exam, essay, quiz, or deadline of an oral presentation. Plagiarism is the act of submitting as one’s own work (the words, ideas, images, or compositions) of another person or persons without accurate attribution. Plagiarism can manifest itself in various ways: it can arise from sloppy, inaccurate note-taking; it can emerge as the incomplete or incompetent citation of resources; it can take the form of the wholesale submission of another person’s work as one’s own, whether from an online, oral, or printed source. The seriousness of an instance of plagiarism—its moral character as an act of academic dishonesty—normally depends on the extent to which a student intends to deceive and mislead the reader as to the authorship of the work in question. Initially, the instructor will make this determination. In the unfortunate event of an alleged breach of academic honesty, a student will be assured due process as follows: • No later than three calendar weeks after the instructor’s observation of academic dishonesty, the instructor will present to the student (orally or in writing) the specific charge with all supporting documentation. Documentation should include the nature of alleged academic dishonesty, a description of

the incident, and the evidence supporting the charge. At the moment the work has been submitted, the student involved forfeits the right to withdraw from the course or to change their course status in any way. • Following this notification, the instructor will meet with the student and permit the student to respond to the charge with factual information and mitigating circumstances related to the charge. If circumstances prohibit a face-to-face meeting (as might be the case if the incident occurs at the end of a term), the student may respond to the charges via email. • If the instructor concludes that the student is culpable of academic dishonesty, the instructor shall report the suspected incident to the associate provost of undergraduate studies (APUS). • Information related to the offenses of academic dishonesty must be passed by the faculty member to the APUS who shall retain the information for as long as the student involved is enrolled at the College. Information and evidence concerning academic dishonesty are the property of the College. • The APUS and student charged with academic dishonesty will meet in a closed session to review the charges and the supporting evidence. Following this meeting, the APUS shall send the student formal correspondence describing the consequences of this offense and any further offenses.

Sanctions for Undergraduate Students • For the first offense of academic dishonesty, the instructor has the option of implementing whatever grade-related penalty they deem appropriate, up to and including failure in the course. • For the second formally established offense of academic dishonesty, failure in the course is warranted; the APUS shall so notify the faculty member(s) involved. Additionally, the APUS has the authority to take further action against the student, up to and including suspension or permanent dismissal from the College. • For the third formally established offense of academic dishonesty, failure in the course and removal from the College are warranted. Removal may take the form either of suspension for one or two terms or permanent dismissal. Permanent dismissals are recorded on a student’s academic transcript.

Sanctions for Graduate Students • For the first formally established academic dishonesty offense, failure in the course is mandatory. • For the second formally established offense, failure in the course and dismissal from the graduate program and College are mandatory. Permanent dismissals are recorded on a student’s academic transcript. • The APUS has the authority to determine whether actions by a student constitute “offenses of academic dishonesty” as described previously. • The student may appeal the determination of academic dishonesty within 10 business days following the date of the decision sent to the student from the