Policy on Student Academic Integrity

Approved by: Committee on Academic Standards, Spring 2005

GGU's Policy on Student Academic Integrity is in effect at all GGU teaching locations, including regional classroom sites, corporate sites, and distance courses delivered in any medium. This policy applies to all business, taxation, and technology students at Golden Gate University. Consult the Law School for information about its academic integrity policies.

Academic integrity means doing academic work in a manner that strives to achieve the learning objectives your courses have set out for you. It means that you follow the rules and procedures prescribed by your instructors so that you acquire the skills and knowledge your courses are designed to give you. It means that you engage in ethical practices in taking tests and doing assignments and that you respect intellectual property rights by fully disclosing sources of information that appear in your papers and presentations.

Academic integrity pays off for you by ensuring that you get the education you are working and paying for. Academic integrity maintains the good reputation of the University and guarantees the value of your degree for the rest of your life.

Academic dishonesty is the failure to maintain academic integrity. It includes but is not limited to both cheating and plagiarism.

Golden Gate University requires that students be honest in their academic work. Academic dishonesty is viewed as an ethical issue and a violation of the principles expressed in the University's Mission Statement. It defrauds all those who depend upon the integrity of the University, its courses, and its degrees.

Students are responsible for adhering to standards of academic integrity. Students should request information from their instructors regarding the rules and guidelines for examinations, papers, projects, presentations, and other assignments. Students are responsible for understanding what plagiarism is and how to avoid unintentional plagiarism by carefully following accepted scholarly practices-accurately recording sources of materials to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and acknowledging these sources in accepted documentation formats. Information on proper scholarly practices can be obtained in the GGU Library and on the Library's website

If any student, faculty member, test proctor, administrator or any other University employee believes that there is evidence of academic dishonesty by a student or group of students, the University expects that person to take action on the matter, following University policy.

Academic dishonesty is the failure to maintain academic integrity. It includes but is not limited to both cheating and plagiarism. Cheating and plagiarism are defined as follows:

Cheating is the act of obtaining or attempting to obtain, or helping someone else obtain, credit for academic work through any dishonest, deceptive, or fraudulent means. It includes, but is not limited to:

• Copying, in part or in whole, from another student's exam, test, quiz, assignment or other evaluation instrument
• Using or consulting sources, materials, devices, or other assistance not authorized by the instructor during a quiz, test, or examination
• Obtaining or attempting to obtain, or giving or attempting to give unauthorized aid of any type on a quiz, test, examination, or assignment
• Obtaining or attempting to obtain unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination
• Submitting work previously presented in another course, unless specifically authorized by the course instructor
• Doing work for another student or having one's work done by another person, or representing oneself as another person, or failing to identify oneself in a forthright and honest manner in the context of an academic obligation
• Altering grades or interfering with grading policies or procedures
• Submitting or attempting to submit contrived or altered data, quotations or documentation when the intent is to mislead, or deliberately attributing material to a source other than where the student obtained it
• Any other act committed by a student in the course of academic work which defrauds or misrepresents, including aiding or abetting in any of the actions defined above.

Plagiarism is the intentional or negligent presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. It includes, but is not limited to:

• Copying all or part of another person's written work without proper citation or attribution
• Representing as one's own specific phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or the specific substance of another person's work without giving appropriate credit
• Paraphrasing another person's original ideas, theories, explanations, examples, models, principles, research issues and strategies, cases, conclusions, etc. without proper attribution
• Representing as one's own another person's computer programs, web content or designs, graphic or artistic works, mathematical or scientific solutions, charts, tables, figures, or illustrations in any medium.

Academic dishonesty also includes creating an improper academic disadvantage to another student or an improper academic advantage to oneself. This includes but is not limited to removing, defacing, hiding or deliberately withholding library books or other materials, especially those with short-term loan periods or on reserve for courses.

Academic dishonesty also includes theft or damage of intellectual property. This includes but is not limited to sabotaging or stealing another person's assignment, book, paper, notes, or project and improperly accessing or electronically interfering via computer or other means with the property of another person or the University.

These lists are not exhaustive, and the University reserves the right to determine in a given instance what action constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

Any member of the University who observes, discovers or has a good faith belief about the existence of a violation of academic integrity must notify the faculty member responsible for the course in which the incident occurred, or a dean or other administrator who will in turn notify the responsible faculty member.

The faculty member will investigate the alleged violation. The University has access to various tools and resources to investigate and verify allegations of plagiarism in written work. Some of these resources may also be available to students to check their own work for proper documentation of sources before submitting assignments to their instructor.

When a faculty member responsible for a course has reason to believe that the behavior of a student has been academically dishonest, the faculty member will follow the procedures outlined below.

1. The faculty member will make reasonable efforts to inform the student of the allegations, the supporting evidence, and the possible consequences, and to request a response by the student.
2. If the student cannot be contacted or fails to respond and the faculty member continues to believe that the behavior of the student has been academically dishonest, the faculty member will fill out an Allegation of Student Dishonesty form and make all reasonable efforts to inform the student of the sanction imposed or recommended. If after a student responds to a charge of academic dishonesty the faculty member believes the response by the student is insufficient to offset the charge, the faculty member will inform the student of the sanctions that will be imposed or recommended. All written or spoken communications between the student and the faculty member will be kept confidential, except as may be (1) reasonably necessary to investigate the allegations of academic dishonesty, (2) appropriate in any subsequent disciplinary proceedings or legal actions and/or (3) required by law or court order.
3. When a faculty member has decided that a sanction should be imposed or recommended, the faculty member will submit an Allegation of Student Dishonesty form to the Director of Academic Integrity in the Office of Academic Affairs. The Director of Academic Integrity will notify, as appropriate, the dean or director of the School or Division in which the course is given, the dean of the School in which the student in enrolled, and/or other University officials of the infraction and the sanctions imposed and/or recommended by copying the Allegation of Student Dishonesty form to these people or other reasonable form of notice. The Allegation of Academic Dishonesty will then be placed in the student's disciplinary file.

The Director of Academic Integrity will notify the student in writing of appeal rights and procedures.

Sanctions are the consequences imposed on the student for acts of dishonesty. There are two kinds of sanctions: academic sanctions and administrative sanctions. Either one or both types may be imposed for any act of academic dishonesty.

Academic sanctions are the consequences of a violation of academic integrity on a student's grade or grades in a course, and are the decision entirely of the faculty member teaching the course. A student may appeal an academic sanction through the grade grievance process; please refer to University Catalog for the grade grievance policy and procedures. If a student goes on academic probation as a result of the academic sanction, the University will develop a retention plan for the student. Academic sanctions include but are not limited to the following:

• Requiring the student to redo, following guidelines of academic integrity, an examination or assignment done in violation of standards of academic integrity or complete an alternative examination or assignment or make up the grade by means of additional work
• Assigning the student an "F" or other reduced grade for the exam or assignment, with no possibility of redoing the work or making up the grade by means of additional work
• Assigning an "F" or other reduced grade for the course.

In addition to imposing academic sanctions, the faculty member may also recommend the imposition of administrative sanctions.

Administrative sanctions are concerned with a student's academic status within the University and are imposed by the dean of the School or director of the Division in which the course is given or the dean of the School in which the student is enrolled, in consultation with the Director of Academic Integrity and other University officials as appropriate. Sanctions include but are not limited to the following:

• Requiring the student to retake the course and honestly earn a certain grade for it within a specified period of time, with the understanding that any repeated instance of cheating or plagiarism can be cause for expulsion from the University. All grades including an "F" or any other reduced grade for work that violated this policy will be included in the student's transcript and averaged in the student's overall GPA
• Suspension from the course and a prohibition from retaking it for one academic term or more, followed by retaking the course as described above
• Suspension from all courses in the School or Division in which the course is given for one academic term or more
• Suspension from the program in which the student is enrolled for one or more academic terms
• Expulsion from the program in which the student is enrolled
• Expulsion from the University
• Deferral, Withholding or Revocation of a Degree

The student will be notified in writing of all sanctions imposed. A copy of the notification will be placed in the student's academic integrity. All administrative sanctions can be appealed to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Academic Sanctions: A student may appeal an academic sanction through the grade grievance process; please refer to University Catalog for the grade grievance policy and procedures. Reversal of the academic sanction must be based on substantiated refutation of the academic dishonesty allegation.

Administrative Sanctions: A student may appeal a dean or director's administrative sanction to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The appeal must be filed in writing within 60 days of the imposition of the sanction. The Vice President for Academic Affairs will respond in writing within 30 days of receipt of the appeal. Reversal of an administrative sanction imposed by a dean or director must be based on a substantiated refutation of the academic dishonesty allegation or a convincing argument that a particular sanction should not to be imposed. The decision of the Vice President for Academic Affairs is final.

All documentation and outcomes related to this process shall be maintained according to the University's policies and applicable laws concerning maintenance and disclosure of student records, protection of a student's right of privacy and disclosure of personal student information.

All allegations, related documents and correspondence, decisions and appeal proceedings relating to academic dishonesty shall be available to authorized University personnel only, and shall be kept confidential except as may be (1) reasonably necessary to investigate the allegations of academic dishonesty, (2) appropriate in any subsequent allegations of dishonesty, subsequent disciplinary proceedings or legal actions and/or (2) required by law or court order.