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Appendix D

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY POLICY AND PROCEDURE

1. Policy

Western Washington University students have an obligation to fulfill the responsibilities of their particular roles as members of an academic community.  Honesty is essential to learning.  Without it, fair evaluation for all is impossible.  Academic integrity is demanded, and academic dishonesty at Western Washington University is a serious infraction dealt with severely.  Students shall not claim as their own the achievements, work or arguments of others, nor shall they be a party to such claims.  It is the instructor’s responsibility to confront a student and to take appropriate action if academic dishonesty, in the instructor’s judgment, has occurred.

2. Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty is not qualitatively different from other types of dishonesty.  It consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means.  Academic dishonesty compromises an instructor’s ability to fairly evaluate a student’s work or achievement. It includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(a)   Giving unauthorized information to another student or receiving unauthorized information from another student during any type of assignment or test.

(b)   Obtaining or providing without authorization questions or answers prior to the time of an assignment or test.

(c)    Using unauthorized sources for answers during any assignment or test.

(d)    Asking or arranging for another person to complete an assignment or take a test in one’s place.

(e)    Giving or receiving answers by use of signals during a test.

(f)     Altering answers on a scored test and submitting it for a higher grade.

(g)    Collaborating with others in a required assignment without the approval of the instructor.

(h)    Stealing class assignments or portions of assignments, including electronic files, and submitting them as one's own.  

(i)      Not crediting participants for their part in a group project or claiming credit for work not done on a group project.

(j)      Plagiarism, which is presenting as one's own in whole or in part the argument, language, creations, conclusions, or scientific data of another without explicit acknowledgement. Examples include but are not limited to:

(1)    Using another person's written or spoken words without complete and proper citation.

(2)    Using information from a World Wide Web site, CD-ROM or other electronic sources without complete and proper citation.

(3)    Using statistics, graphs, charts and facts without acknowledging their source.

(4)    Submitting a paper purchased from a term-paper service.

(5)    Paraphrasing, which is imitating someone else's argument using other words without acknowledging the source.

(6)    Claiming credit for someone else's artistic work, such as a drawing, script, musical composition or arrangement.

(7)    Using someone else’s lab report as a source of data or results.

(8)    Using one’s own or substantially similar work, produced in connection with one course, to fulfill a requirement in another course without prior permission. A student may use the same or substantially the same work for assignments in two or more courses only with written permission from the instructors of all the classes involved.

3. Procedures

(a) An instructor suspecting an act of academic dishonesty shall discuss the matter thoroughly with the student involved. Arrangements for this discussion shall be made by the instructor within ten (10) class days after discovering the alleged violation. In the event the student is absent from campus, the instructor shall attempt to contact the student in writing at the most recent permanent address available in the Office of the Registrar. If the incident occurs at the end of a quarter, within ten (10) class days of the beginning of the following quarter or within a reasonable time thereafter the instructor shall arrange to discuss the matter with the student.

Should the instructor be unable to contact the student to discuss the incident in question before final grades are due, the instructor shall submit a grade of X with a note to the registrar. The registrar shall in turn inform the student of his/her responsibility to contact the instructor and refer the student to the section of the General Catalog addressing “Student Rights and Responsibilities” and "Academic Dishonesty Policy and Procedure" (Appendix D).  Should the student not respond to the faculty member or respective department chairperson by the 10th day of the next academic quarter, not including summer, the grade will be changed to an F.

During the discussion between the instructor and the student, the student may be asked to explain his or her thought process and the sources of the information, ideas, data, or calculations presented in the work under dispute. Failure to give an adequate explanation can influence the instructor’s decision.

Following this discussion, the instructor shall determine whether an act of academic dishonesty has occurred, and if so, whether it is a minor or major violation. If in the instructor’s judgment there has been a minor violation, in which the offenses are either purely technical in nature or the instructor does not perceive intent to deceive and/or achieve an academic advantage, the instructor shall, according to his or her professional judgement, proceed in one or more of the following ways:

¨       Explain or clarify the standards of the assignment and ask the student to redo it.

¨       Issue the student a written warning  and give the student a zero on the assignment in question. 

If in the instructor’s judgement there has been a major violation, in which the offenses include a substantial misrepresentation and/or an apparent intent to deceive and gain an academic advantage, the instructor shall assign a grade of F for the course and notify the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Registrar.  The instructor should write a brief account summarizing the evidence for the finding of a major violation. This should be sent to the Registrar with copies to the department chair and the student.  A record of the violation is maintained in the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Office of the Registrar. Repeated acts of academic dishonesty shall make a student subject to disciplinary action — including possible dismissal — through the “Student Rights and Responsibilities Code,” available from the Office of Student Life.

No student shall be allowed to withdraw from a course or from the University to avoid receiving a failing grade based upon academic dishonesty.

(b) Appeal: A student who receives an F for academic dishonesty and who feels wrongly accused by an instructor may appeal to the dean of the school or college involved. The appeal must be lodged within ten (10) class days of receiving notice of the instructor’s decision, and if not, any right of appeal is deemed waived. The dean shall make a decision based on the merits of the case.  The reasons for the decision shall be put in writing and shall be given to both the student and the instructor within ten (10) class days of receiving the appeal.

Either side may appeal a decision of the dean to the Student Academic Grievance Board and from the Board to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, whose decision is final. Procedures followed shall be those provided in the “Student Academic Grievance Policy and Procedures” (Section 3, Appeal to the Board), which is printed in Appendix F of the University’s General Catalog.