Academic Integrity

Students at Crandall University are required to uphold high standards of academic integrity, including (but not limited to) the following:

• supporting the academic progress of other students and doing nothing to impede that progress;
• following all relevant protocols for testing, assignments, and other forms of evaluation;
• not submitting the same work for credit in two or more courses without permission to do so;
• not representing as one’s own work something that is not;
• acknowledging the source of any information or phrasing that is not one’s own.

A breach of any of the above may constitute academic dishonesty.

Plagiarism is of particular concern because students are often confused about what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. In short, plagiarism is the act of using ideas, words, data sets, tables, recordings, or other such material that is not one’s own without acknowledging the source, or submitting one’s own work from another course without permission to do so, and it is considered a serious academic offense.

The university is committed to helping students avoid plagiarism and will provide training on how to find quality sources of information, how to quote from or paraphrase such sources, and how to properly acknowledge those sources. Such training is typically provided in introductory courses and in resources made available in the library and on Moodle.

Upholding Academic Standards

When a student falls short of the University’s standards for academic integrity, the instructor must report the incident to the chair of the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee. The instructor and the Committee will then take appropriate steps to address the situation. Such steps typically include one or more of the following:

• a notice of academic dishonesty added to the student’s academic file;
• training in the area concerned;
• reprimand and rewrite;
• reduction of grade on the assignment;
• grade of “F” on the course;
• suspension from the university;
• dismissal from the university.

If an incident involves the collaboration of two or more students, such steps may be applied to all involved.

Students have the right to appeal a decision of the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee to the Academic Council. Such appeals must include new evidence or reasoning that calls into question the original decision of the Committee and must be made in writing within two weeks of being notified of the Committee’s decision.

Academic Discipline Protocols

When a student fails to meet the University’s standards for Academic Integrity, the University will take corrective action. The protocols provided here must be followed to ensure consistent application of policy and equitable treatment of students.

Impeding Student Progress

When a student’s behaviour disrupts class and thus impedes the success of others, the instructor must take reasonable and immediate action to prevent such behaviour from re-occurring. Such action may include discussing classroom protocols with the student or the class, asking the student to refrain from such behaviour, and, in cases where the behaviour is repeated, threatening, or particularly offensive, reporting the student’s behaviour to the relevant Dean or the VPAA.

Cheating on Tests or Assignments

When a student is found cheating on a test or assignment, the instructor must assign a grade of zero for the test or assignment and report the incident, using the Academic Discipline Report form, to the chair of the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee via the Registrar’s office. The ASAC may apply further penalty.

Cheating includes using unauthorized aids, copying another student’s work and presenting it as one’s own, or any other act that is dishonest and gives the student an unfair advantage.

Cheating on Exams

Because final examinations are administered by the Registrar’s Office, instances of academic dishonesty during the writing of final examinations will be addressed by the Registrar in consultation with the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee and the professor of record for the course in which the offense has been committed. (See “General Examination Regulations” and “Academic Dishonesty During Final Examinations” in the Academic Calendar.)

Minor Plagiarism

Plagiarism shall be deemed “minor plagiarism” where the work is primarily the student’s own and the offense does not compromise the integrity of the document; it shall be treated differently from “significant plagiarism” discussed below. Examples of minor plagiarism include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Missing quotation marks: The student copies a short section verbatim, or insufficiently rewords the source, and notes the source but does not use quotation marks as needed.
• Missing documentation: The student consistently attempts to document the use of other sources, but in a few minor instances does not note the source of information used. (Note that in this case, the missing documentation is an exception, not the norm, in the work.)
• The student has submitted their own work that was previously submitted for credit in another course, without permission to do so, though has not done so previously. (A first offence of this type.)

In such cases, the following protocols shall be followed:

• The instructor shall explain to the student why the assignment does not meet the university’s standards for academic integrity and suggest revisions to help meet those standards.
• In cases where the student has not properly documented sources, the student shall be given opportunity to revise the assignment. (The student’s revisions must be limited to correcting the offending sections; no other revisions shall be accepted.) The instructor shall then grade the re- submitted work with penalty of 10-20%.
  • If the student chooses not to revise the assignment, or does not submit the revised assignment by the agreed upon deadline (normally 48 hours after meeting with the instructor), the instructor shall grade the original (unrevised) assignment with a penalty of 30%.
• In cases where the student has submitted work from a previous course without permission to do so (first offence), the student shall be given the opportunity to redo the assignment. The instructor shall then grade the replacement work with a penalty of 20% and report the incident, using the Academic Discipline Report form to the Chair of the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee via the Registrar’s office.
  • If the student chooses not to redo the assignment, or does not submit the new assignment by the agreed upon deadline (negotiated in advance with the instructor), the instructor shall apply a grade of zero for the assignment and report the incident, using the Academic Discipline Report form to the Chair of the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee via the Registrar’s office.

Significant Plagiarism

Plagiarism shall be deemed “significant plagiarism” where the offense compromises the integrity of the document. Examples of significant plagiarism include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In multiple places in the assignment, the student has used information that is not their own and has made no attempt to indicate that another source (such as an online source, a book, another student’s work, a ghost writer, or AI-generated content) has been used. (The student may have copied and pasted the information, or may have partially reworded or reorganized it, but in either case has presented the material as if it were entirely their own.)
• The student has fabricated sources. (I.e., the student claims to have gotten particular information from a particular source, but the source does not actually exist or does not contain the information cited by the student.)
• The student has submitted their own work that was previously submitted for credit in another course, without permission to do so, and has done so previously. (A second or subsequent offence of this.)

In such cases, the following protocols shall apply:

• The instructor must assign a grade of 0% for the assignment and report the incident, using the Academic Discipline Report form to the chair of the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee via the Registrar’s office. The ASAC may apply further penalty.

Repeated Violations and Further Penalties

Upon confirmation of an instance of Cheating on a Test, Cheating on an Exam, or Significant Plagiarism, the following protocols shall apply:

• the Registrar’s Office shall add an Academic Discipline Report, including details of the offence, to the student’s academic file;
• the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee shall apply further penalty:
  • second offence: a grade of “F” in the course;
  • third offence: suspension from the University for one semester;
  • fourth offence: expulsion from the University.
• the University Registrar shall notify the student, by formal letter, of any further penalties applied by the Academic Standards and Appeals Committee, and of any further penalties that may be applied should a further incident occur; the letter will also refer the student to the Academic Integrity section of the University Calendar and to the Academic Discipline Protocols document.

Other Details

When a student is suspected of a subsequent instance of plagiarism but notification of the previous instance has not yet been sent, the instances shall be treated as one and the same for the purpose of determining penalties.

When an instructor suspects plagiarism after an assignment has been returned or after the student has completed the course or degree program, the above protocols shall be followed as possible and any penalties applied retroactively.