The virtues of honesty, accountability, and wisdom—goods of the highest order—being an aim of a liberal education, it is necessarily the policy of Hillsdale College to act firmly and decisively to promote academic integrity and honor. Honesty in academics, as in all walks of life, is a matter of personal honor for which each individual must ultimately take responsibility. It is the primary purpose of this policy to promote and ensure academic honesty within the Hillsdale College community.
A. This Policy on Academic Honor places upon the students, individually and collectively, the following responsibilities:
1. That they will do their share to ensure that they, as well as others, will uphold the spirit and letter of the policy;
2. That they will not, for example, give or receive unpermitted aid in examinations or any other work that is to be used by the instructor as a basis for grading; that they will not copy or paraphrase without proper acknowledgment; and that they will not forge any data, information, or signature;
3. That they will familiarize themselves with, and adhere to, the standards for proper acknowledgment of sources set out in recognized academic guidebooks such as the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers; K. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations; The Chicago Manual of Style; American Psychological Association Publication Manual; or others appropriate for a given field;
4. That they will not submit the same academic work (e.g. research paper or project) in whole or in part for two separate classes unless the current professor(s) grant prior written permission for doing so.
B. The Faculty on its part hereby manifests its confidence in the honor of its students, but recognizing that honor, like all other virtues, must be learned and nurtured, commits to assist in educating and strengthening the students in their growth as honorable men and women.
C. The Faculty alone has the right and obligation to set academic requirements; however, the students and instructors will work together to establish optimal conditions for honorable academic work.
PROCEDURES
Instructor’s Responsibilities
Upon suspecting an academic honor violation of any sort, the instructor:
A. Should notify the student(s) of the issue and provide them an opportunity to explain or to provide additional relevant information;
B. Determines to the best of his/her ability whether an academic honor violation has in fact occurred. If so, the instructor proceeds according to the following guidelines, not necessarily in the order given:*
- Any student who has committed an honor violation will be subject to a course sanction determined and imposed by the instructor, and potentially an institutional sanction.
2. The instructor may implement a course sanction he/she deems appropriate for the violation, up to and including failing the student in the course in which the violation occurred.
3. The instructor is expected to contact the Registrar within five days of discovering any violation. The Registrar will check the student’s academic history to learn whether previous honor code violations have been reported, and will supply the instructor with that information. Following (or concurrent with) consultation with the Registrar, the instructor is to file an honor code violation report with the Registrar’s office. The report will include the name of the student and the course, the date, and a brief description of the violation and the course sanction imposed. The report will be one of two types, at the discretion of the instructor depending on his/her judgment of the severity of the violation: (1) Incident Report for tracking purposes, or (2) Formal Notice of Infraction.
a. Incident Report: A “written warning” for the purpose of documenting a violation that the instructor deems to be relatively minor and likely resulting from misunderstanding, ignorance, or carelessness. Examples of violations that might fall under this category include first-time occurrences of: improper paraphrasing, failure to cite a source or use quotation marks, or improper sharing of information on a homework assignment. Classification of these or other violations is at the discretion of the instructor based on the details of the case. The purpose of the Incident Report is to ensure that the given violation is recorded and that corrective action is taken to prevent its recurrence.
b. Formal Notice of Infraction: A violation deemed by the instructor to be more severe than that warranting an Incident Report. Any falsification of data, forgery, copying or obtaining information from a disallowed source during an exam, falsely submitting a paper as one’s own, blatant plagiarism, or obtaining and/or supplying any materials disallowed by the instructor would be typically reported as a Formal Notice of Infraction. Moreover, multiple academic honor violations of any kind will often warrant a Formal Notice, since a repeated violation suggests disregard of initial corrective action.
*Note: If the instructor wishes, he/she may find it helpful to contact the Registrar even before determining the course sanction in a given situation, if a broader academic history and perspective could influence the sanction imposed.
Registrar's Responsibilities Upon Receipt of Violation Reports
Upon receiving an Incident Report, the Registrar shall:
A. Place a copy of the report in the student’s file;
B. Notify the student in writing that an Incident Report has been filed for the particular course, and refer the student to the instructor for further details or in case of questions;
C. Provide the student with a copy of the Honor Code and the Academic Honor Policy;
D. Notify Student Affairs and the student’s academic advisor of the report and its content.
Upon receiving a Formal Notice of Infraction,
A. The Registrar shall place a copy of the report in the student’s academic history, provide the student with a copy of the Honor Code and the Academic Honor Policy, and notify Student Affairs and the student’s academic advisor of the report and its content.
B. In addition to the course sanction imposed by the instructor, the presumed institutional response to the first Formal Notice of Infraction is a corrective action plan with Student Affairs, developed in consultation with the instructor. If, however, the instructor presents the first Formal Notice of Infraction as an egregious offense that potentially warrants suspension or expulsion (e.g., pre-meditated cheating on an exam, submission of a forged document, etc.), it shall be referred to the Academic Status Committee which will determine the institutional sanction, if any.
C. The Registrar will notify the student in writing that such a charge has been made, the nature and source of the charge, and the course and institutional sanctions. Such notification will inform the student that he/she may initiate an appeal of the facts of the case or the institutional sanction by notifying the Registrar in writing. Such notice of appeal must:
(1) Be provided in writing to the Registrar within ten days of the student’s receipt of written notice of the charge from the Registrar;
(2) Indicate whether the student intends (i) to appeal the facts of the case, or (ii) argue that the proposed institutional sanctions ought not be imposed because of sufficiently mitigating circumstances. Students electing (ii) may not raise the issue of guilt on appeal. The instructor’s course sanction cannot be appealed.
D. If the student files an appeal, the Registrar shall, within two weeks of such filing, notify the student of the time and place of the appeal hearing; and shall furnish the chair of the Academic Honesty Review Board (hereafter the “Board”) with copies of the relevant documents from the student’s file.
E. In the case of a second (2nd) Formal Notice of Infraction, the presumed institutional sanction shall be permanent expulsion from the College. The student shall have the right to appeal, as delineated above.
Appeal Board
The Board shall be composed of:
A. Three faculty members elected by the faculty for one-year terms.
B. Three students, selected jointly by the Dean of Men and Dean of Women, from a list of ten to be supplied by the Student Federation. These students shall serve one-year terms.
C. The Provost, who shall serve as chair and may vote to make or break ties.
D. If at the designated hearing time a member of the Board is absent, the parties may either adjourn the meeting and reschedule it for a later time, or continue as if with the full Board. Decisions made by the Board in this latter instance are fully binding and final.
Scope of Review
The Board shall meet to consider appeals, and may review the following issues:
A. Whether the alleged violation(s) did, in fact, occur;
B. Whether, because of mitigating circumstances, imposition of the proposed institutional sanction(s) would be excessive;
C. What lesser penalty shall be imposed if the proposed institutional sanction is deemed excessive under the circumstances;
D. If the Board concludes that an honor violation did occur, the Board may not review the course sanction imposed by the instructor. If the Board concludes that no violation occurred, it shall declare that no penalty may be imposed by the instructor or by the institution, and all records of the incident shall be destroyed.
Hearing Procedures
The appeal to the Board shall be conducted in accordance with the following procedures:
A. The accused student and one representative chosen by the student may appeal before the Board. The student, or the representative acting on behalf of the student, may call witnesses, present evidence, and question the accusing instructor. Except under unusual circumstances (e.g., extended absence from campus such as a sabbatical or lengthy illness), all witnesses must appear and testify in person.
B. When reviewing the instructor's conclusions that a violation did, in fact, occur:
(1) Burden of Proof: The burden of proof rests with Hillsdale College. This means that if the instructor presents no evidence of guilt, or the evidence of guilt is no more convincing than the evidence of innocence, the Board shall sustain the appeal.
(2) Standard of Proof: The standard of proof is a simple preponderance of the evidence to be determined in light of the credibility of the witnesses. This means that if, after hearing all the evidence, the Board believes it more likely than not that the student committed the violation, the Board shall dismiss the appeal with respect to the issue. If the Board believes it more likely than not that the student did not commit the offense, or if the Board considers it equally likely that the student did or did not commit the offense, the Board shall sustain the appeal.
(3) Hearsay and Relevance: The Board, in determining guilt, may not consider undocumented accusations. The Board may consider all other evidence it deems reliable and relevant to the incident under consideration.
C. Mitigating Factors: When reviewing the appropriateness of the institutional sanction:
(1) The Board may consider any aspect of the student’s academic conduct it deems relevant; it may also consider documented violations of other college regulations and policies.
(2) The Board shall consider a one- or two-semester suspension from the college in lieu of expulsion when the Board determines that clearly mitigating circumstances exist. However, given the seriousness of a sustained 2nd Formal Notice of Infraction, reduction of the institutional sanction to be less than a one-semester suspension would be exceptional
(3) A student’s claim not to have known, or not to have been properly taught what constitutes plagiarism, shall not alone be sufficient to constitute “mitigating circumstances,” and no appeal shall be sustained on this basis.
D. All appeals shall be decided, after due deliberation, by a majority vote of the Board.
E. The decision of the Board shall be sent to the student as soon as possible after the decision is reached.
F. Neither expulsion nor suspension from Hillsdale College shall entitle the student to any refund of payments made to Hillsdale College, except as otherwise provided by College policy.
G. All records of academic offenses which were not appealed, or were affirmed on appeal, shall be purged from the student's file after graduation.