To say that the world of higher education is big on integrity is an understatement. Academic communities like Cedar Crest College can only thrive when every member is fully committed to the principles of academic integrity. To ensure students reach their educational goals, Cedar Crest has enforced a number of rules that serve to preserve and maintain academic integrity in all scholastic endeavors.
Students who break these rules, knowingly or accidentally, will be accused of academic misconduct. Accusations of academic misconduct are serious and will be punished through the school's judicial system. Guilty determinations of academic misconduct have been known to jeopardize students' college careers and affect their professional lives down the line as well.
In this article, we'll address how Cedar Crest College handles allegations of academic misconduct and why you need a student defense attorney to assist you through the process once accused.
Cedar Crest College's Honor Code
Cedar Crest College students are expected to uphold community standards for academic and social behavior in order to preserve a learning environment dedicated to personal and academic excellence. Upholding community standards is a matter of personal integrity and honor. Individuals who attend Cedar Crest are making a pledge to accept responsibility for their actions in all academic and social situations and the effect their actions may have on other members of the college community.
Cedar Crest College considers the following acts, but not only the following acts, to be breaches of its academic standard of integrity and academic misconduct. Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Cheating: during the performance of or completion of an academic assignment (e.g. quizzes, tests, examinations, artistic works, presentations, or papers), it is misconduct to use, have access to, or attempt to gain access to any and all sources or assistance not authorized by the instructor.
- Plagiarism: the act, intentional or not, misrepresenting the work, research, language or ideas of another person (published or unpublished) as one's own. An assignment or part of an assignment that fails to acknowledge source material through an appropriate academic discipline's citation conventions for quotation, paraphrase, and summary also constitutes plagiarism.
- Collusion: collusion is the collaboration of two or more individuals in either giving or receiving assistance not authorized by the instructor for the completion of an academic assignment.
- Falsification: falsification is the misrepresentation of academic work or records. Falsification includes, but is not limited to: the fabrication of research, scientific data, or an experiment's results; providing false information regarding an academic assignment, including reasons for absence, deadline extension or tardiness; the tampering with grade or attendance records; the forging or misuse of college documents or records; or the forging of faculty or administrator signatures. An assignment or part of an assignment, submitted for academic credit in one course and resubmitted by the student for academic credit in another course without both instructors' permission also constitutes falsification.
- Sabotage: sabotage is the act of hindering another student's ability to complete an academic assignment. Destruction of college property may constitute sabotage.
- Impersonation: impersonation is the act of a person pretending to be a student during the completion of an academic assignment; impersonation also includes the act of a student soliciting another person to assume that student's identity for the completion of an academic assignment.
The forms of academic misconduct defined above are not exhaustive, and other acts in violation of the Cedar Crest Honor Code or academic standards of integrity may be deemed academic misconduct by an instructor or by the college.
Cedar Crest College's Response to Academic Misconduct
Students who breach the academic standard of integrity are subject to sanctions imposed by the course instructor, a department chair, the Provost, or the board of trustees. Such sanctions can range from but are not limited to, the requirement to redo an assignment; the reduction in grade for an assignment or course; or the failure of an assignment or course; suspension or expulsion from the College; or the withholding, denial or rescinding of academic degrees. Students who fail a course as a result of academic misconduct may be removed from the course upon entry of a final grade of “F” by the decision of the department chair, in consultation with the course instructor.
The initial response to academic misconduct rests with the individual instructor, who is entitled to take into account all factors when determining the penalty for the offense which includes the student's degree of academic experience and any prior instances of academic misconduct in the student's time at the College. If a student withdraws from a course and the instructor discovers academic misconduct, either before or after the withdrawal, the misconduct penalty, including an instructor's grade of “F” for the course, supersedes the “W.”
Sanctions
There are a range of sanctions the school will impose if you've been found responsible for academic misconduct.
- Continue at the college with no restrictions (a warning) - the college may decide to do nothing if it is decided based on a review that the misconduct is not severe enough to impose a sanction.
- Remaining enrolled at the college subject to conditions but with eligibility for College-owned residential agreement reviewed
- Suspension or expulsion
Pennsylvania Academic Integrity Attorney
An academic misconduct violation can jeopardize the academic and professional goals you or your college student have set. If you value the investment you've made into your education and your professional future, contacting a skilled student defense attorney is a must. The attorneys of LLF law firm have helped students who've acquired serious academic misconduct charges recover from these allegations, and they can do the same for you. Contact them today for more information at 888-535-3686.
