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Undergraduate Honor System

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• Process & Guidelines
• Infractions
• Procedures
• Honor Council
• Sanctions
• Rights of Accused
• Evaluation
• Appeals

Procedures

Reporting a violation of the Honor System. In order to preserve the effectiveness of the System, faculty and students must report probable violations to the appropriate individual(s).

• If an instructor suspects an honor violation, he/she should document the concerns and confront the student as soon as possible. If the accuser is uncomfortable meeting the student, then the VP/Dean may meet with the student in their stead. If a student suspects an honor violation, they should notify the professor or the VP/Dean of Students. Documentation of the incident in question should be made on the “Honor System Incident Report” form available in the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Office. Before confronting the student, contact must be made to the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Office to ensure that the suspect has not been found responsible of a previous honor offense. If it is determined that the suspect has not been found responsible of a previous honor violation, the instructor should request a private meeting with the student where the specific charge should be discussed. The student should have the opportunity to explain his/her actions. If the student admits responsibility, the professor may impose a penalty appropriate to the violation (see SANCTIONS below). A complete documentation of the accusation, meeting with the student, and imposed sanction should be included in the appropriate sections of the “Honor System Incident Report” and forwarded to the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Office as soon as possible from the time of the imposition of the sanction. This documentation will be placed in the students’ file. The Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Office will contact the student(s) who have been sanctioned by an instructor, in a confidential manner, to ensure an understanding of the violation and the resulting sanction. Failure to attend the follow-up meeting scheduled by the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Office will result in the matter being resolved through the hearing process (see Hearing Process below).
  
  If the student disputes the allegation or refuses to cooperate with the instructor in any manner, the Instructor should contact the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students Office immediately. At this point, the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students will initiate the hearing process (see Hearing Process below). Students who have been found responsible of a previous honor violation will automatically resolve the matter through the hearing process (see Hearing Process below).

Hearing Process

If the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students, is needed to assist in the resolution of an honor violation, he/she will follow these procedures:

• If a hearing is necessary, the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students will forward a complete listing of the charges and the appropriate rights and procedure information to the accused at least 48 hours prior to the time of the hearing. The hearing panel will consist of six Honor Council members (two Faculty and four students) and be chaired by the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students or his/her designee in the case a conflict of interest. Appropriate witnesses (e.g. person making the accusation) must be present at the Hearing. The accused must be present during the entire proceeding. Witnesses will be called at the appropriate time during the hearing by the chair of the Honor Council hearing. The accused or the accuser does NOT have a right to Counsel. Testimony will begin with the Investigating Committee Representative and continue until all witnesses have been heard. The accused has a right to call no more than two character witnesses during the hearing. The procedure will conclude with the accused being given the opportunity to make a “private” statement to the Honor Council. All hearing proceedings will be tape-recorded.
• The Honor Council will have 48 hours to make a decision with regard to responsibility or non-responsibility and the appropriate sanction to be imposed. The Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students will communicate this information by letter and in person to the accused within 48 hours of the decision. The Honor Council’s decision will be communicated to the appropriate individuals (e.g. Registrar) and the hearing documentation and resolution will be placed in the student’s file. The individual responsible for the accusation will be informed of the Honor Council’s decision.

Appeal

The accused has a right of appeal to the Provost/Dean of the College. The notice and specific reasons for the appeal must be made in writing to the Provost/Dean of the College within five days of the student receiving notice of the Honor Council’s decision by the Vice President for Student Life/Dean of Students. The appeal letter must state specifically the basis for the appeal, for example misinterpretation of a policy or new information that was not made available during the Honor Council hearing. The decision of the Vice President /Academic Dean will be the final decision regarding honor violations.

Grievances Related to Academic Matters

Students should first seek to resolve the problem with the specific faculty member involved. If a student wishes to lodge a complaint against a faculty member in an academic matter that cannot be resolved directly with the faculty member, the student should normally first consult with his/her academic advisor. The advisor will guide the student through the options available to the student (informal or formal complaint). When there is an informal expression of an academic concern, the student’s faculty advisor should convey the essence of that concern to the department chair, who will investigate the issue. The chair will take any necessary action to help resolve the issue. If the faculty member in question is the chair of the department, the advisor will convey the nature of the concern to the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, who will investigate the issue and take any necessary action to help resolve the issue. If the faculty member in question is the student’s advisor, the student should contact the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs for resolution of the problem.

Formal complaints should be reserved for situations in which a student believes he or she has been adversely affected in a way that cannot be or has not been resolved through informal intervention. When the student wishes to lodge a formal complaint, the student should generally seek advice from his/her academic advisor about the best way to proceed (unless the advisor is the focus of the complaint). To make a formal complaint, the student must submit a written statement of the difficulty to the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and request that the issue be resolved through the Academic Policy Committee. This statement should be no longer than two pages and should concentrate on the facts of the issue in question.

The Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs then reviews the facts, communicates with the person(s) involved, and attempts to resolve the difficulty to the student’s satisfaction. If that attempt is unsuccessful, the matter will be forwarded to the Academic Policy Committee for review. The Committee will review the facts of the grievance and make a recommendation to the Provost for resolving the problem. The final disposition of the issue is in the hands of the Provost and is final and binding.

Grievances related to the Honor Code will be handled by the Honor Council.