Academic Integrity and Honesty

Integrity and honesty are of utmost importance to the profession of nursing and to academic programs at College of the Redwoods. Students are expected to maintain high standards of academic honesty. 

In accordance with the College of the Redwoods Statement on Academic Integrity, academic dishonesty is subject to both academic and disciplinary action. 

Forms of academic dishonesty include but are not limited to the following:

1. Cheating:  intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials in any academic exercise. 
   Examples:  looking at another student’s test during an examination; using notes, books or calculators unless specifically allowed by the instructor; using the services of a commercial paper mill; copying another student’s homework.
2. Plagiarism:  using another’s words or ideas as if they were one’s own, without giving credit to the source. 
   Examples:  handing in another student’s paper as one’s own, cutting and pasting to create a paper from several sources; not using quotation marks around copied text, paraphrasing or summarizing without attribution, claiming credit for artistic work done by someone else.
3. Complicity:  knowingly helping another to commit an act of academic dishonesty. 
   
   Examples:  taking a test for another; allowing another to copy from one’s paper during an exam, providing a research paper, essay, or homework answers to another student; disclosing test questions.

Individual faculty members may add to and clarify these definitions as they pertain to the specific discipline.  Such additions and clarifications should be clearly stated in the instructor’s syllabi.

Penalties and Sanctions:  Cases of academic dishonesty are subject to both academic and disciplinary sanctions.  The severity of the sanction will be determined both by the seriousness of the offence and by whether it is a first or repeated infraction by the student.

Academic Penalties:  The academic penalty will be determined by the individual faculty on a case-by-case basis.    However, to maintain consistency of sanctions imposed, instructors are expected to impose an appropriate grade penalty.  Major infractions—cases of blatant and intentional cheating or plagiarizing on a major assignment—may result in an F in the course. The instructor will meet with the student as soon as possible after the incident and will inform the student of the proposed sanction and will inform the student of his/her appeal rights.

Disciplinary Actions:  All major infractions, regardless of the academic penalty imposed, will be reported to the Vice President, Chief Student  Services Officer, by the faculty member.  A cumulative record of all reported offences by an individual student will be maintained by the Office of the Vice President, Chief Student Services Officer.

The Vice President, Chief Student Services Officer, shall review each case of academic dishonesty with the involved student.  The student shall be informed of the charges against him or her and shall be given a fair opportunity to refute them.  If an act of academic dishonesty is found to have occurred, the Vice President, Chief Student Services Officer, in consultation with the faculty member involved, will determine the appropriate level of sanction, and will implement that sanction in keeping with the provisions of the Code of Conduct.  Although the progression outlined below may not be followed in every case, the general guideline for dealing with such offences will be as follows:

• The first reported offense by a student will result in a written warning.

• The second reported offense by a student will result in disciplinary probation.
• The third reported offense by a student will result in suspension or expulsion.

All charges of academic dishonesty shall be processed in accordance with the students’ rights as designated in Board Policy and the Student Code of Conduct.