Frequently Asked Questions

1. Successfully complete the Academic Integrity Online Module during your first semester at AUC. For graduate students, refer to the last two FAQs.
2. Know and comply with the AUC Code of Academic Ethics.
3. Sign the AUC Code of Academic Ethics Agreement upon admission to AUC.
4. Uphold the highest standards of academic integrity in all of your work at AUC.
5. Refuse to tolerate violations of the AUC Code of Academic Ethics.
6. Report any suspected violation of the code to the appropriate faculty member, administrator, or student judicial board member.
7. Respect the rights of others, which includes the obligation to refrain from behavior that violates or adversely affects the rights of other members of the AUC community.

The most common reasons students engage in academic integrity dishonesty could be time management, struggling with course materials, mental health, and laziness/disinterest.
We encourage you to use your instructor’s office hours and your TA’s help as well as university resources such as the Writing Center, the Office of Students Well-Being, and the Library.

1. The instructor shall inform you of the violation and may impose a grade penalty.
2. The instructor shall additionally submit an incident report to the Academic Integrity Office.
3. The Academic Integrity Office will notify you of the reported violation via email.
4. Students who have a pending case are not permitted to drop the course.
5. The Academic Integrity office shall schedule a meeting with you and shall notify you of the hearing appointment time and place. Students who fail to attend their scheduled appointment will have their cases decided in their absence based on the available information. 
6. During the meeting with the Academic Integrity Committee, you will be given the chance to explain your side of the story.
7. Once the Academic Integrity Committee makes its decision, it is communicated to you via email. Information will be disseminated to university parties on a need-to-know basis. 

1. If the Committee finds you committed an infraction, a sanction shall be imposed.
2. The Committee notifies you of its decision, rationale, and any sanctions via email. It also notifies the reporter, the Department Chair, and any office that will implement its decision.
3. Students who have been found to have violated the Code of Academic Ethics are not permitted to drop the course.
4. Students who are found guilty of academic dishonesty will have the grade assigned in the course where the violation was committed permanently on their GPA. 

For undergraduate students: 
Students who receive a grade of D+, D, or F are permitted to retake the course. In these instances, the original grade will remain and will be averaged with the new grade in the GPA. The full policy can be found in the University Catalog under the section retaking courses outside of the course repeat policy

For graduate students:
A graduate student receiving an “F” grade in any course because of a breach of academic integrity will be dismissed from the university. Details on this are available in the ;Loading...

5. Students who do not complete the assigned sanction within the communicated deadline will have a hold placed on their registration for the following semester.

Students who have been separated from the university by being prohibited from taking courses, suspended, or expelled due to academic integrity violations are not considered to be current students, and their student rights, including the right to enter campus, are rescinded for the duration of the period of separation. Students who are separated from the university will have their IDs deactivated. They also become ineligible to use university resources for the duration of their period of separation. Their access will only be granted in exceptional cases. If a separated student requires access to campus, a written request must be submitted in writing by email stating the person they are coming to see and confirming the appointment, at least 48 hours prior to the requested appointment. All requests are pending until written confirmation is sent by the Academic Integrity Office. If permission to access campus is granted, the terms of the access will be stipulated in the approval letter. On-the-spot approvals will not be granted.

Once a case is decided, the decision is final. Appeals may be considered only on the following grounds: 

• Unsupported conclusion: The decision made by the AI Committee is not supported by the facts of the case
• Procedural error: The adjudication process did not conform with prescribed procedures. The error must have substantially impacted the outcome
• Disproportionate sanction: The sanction imposed is grossly disproportionate to the severity of the violation or has a disproportionate impact due to the unique circumstances of the particular student respondent
• New evidence: clear information that was not available at the time of the investigation or hearing, which would have had a substantial impact on the outcome of the case

The student must submit an appeal request using the link mentioned in the decision letter within five business days of the date of the notice of the outcome of the AIC decision. It should include:

1. A summary of the case
2. The AIC outcome
3. The grounds of the appeal
4. A brief explanation of the expected outcome of the appeal

The Appeals Committee decides appeals based on the record of the initial proceeding and any written submissions from any of the parties involved: the accused student, complainant, the Presiding Officer of the original hearing. Consideration of an appeal does not include meetings with any of the parties.

TheCode of Academic Ethics applies to the entire AUC community. As a graduate student, you are held to a higher standard of behavior than undergraduates. As such, it is important to understand that any violation of the Code of Academic Ethics may result in immediate suspension and possible dismissal from the university.
Newly admitted degree-seeking graduate students must successfully complete online Academic Integrity Modules during their first semester at AUC. Registration in subsequent semesters shall not be possible until these modules are successfully completed. Newly admitted students will be contacted via email by the Office of Graduate Student Services and Fellowships in the first few weeks of their first semester with details on these online modules and how to access them.

The research resources linked to the university home page as well as the Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements for research involving human subjects are important to the researching graduate student.

1. Know and comply with the AUC Code of Academic Ethics.
2. Pledge my commitment by signing the AUC Code of Academic Ethics Agreement.
3. Uphold the highest standards of academic integrity in all of my own work.
4. Refuse to tolerate violations of the AUC Code of Academic Ethics.
5. Foster an atmosphere of academic integrity among colleagues, students, and staff.
6. Respect the rights of others, which includes the obligation to refrain from behavior that violates or adversely affects the rights of other members of the AUC community.
7. Report incidents of academic dishonesty to the AIO.
8. Inform the student of a violation he/she committed.

This includes but is not restricted to efforts to:

1. Specify conditions for collaborative coursework including working in groups, with lab partners, completing assignments, and any other submitted work.
2. Give clear guidelines or instructions concerning course requirements and policy.
3. Maintain the security and integrity of exams, including responsibly proctoring examinations and quizzes.
4. Give students a reasonable amount of time to finish exams or coursework.
5. Make students aware of academic integrity and create an atmosphere of trust.
6. Make fair and adequate evaluations of all work submitted by students. Varying course materials sufficiently and regularly to encourage academic integrity.
7. Secure electronic materials from unauthorized access.

8. Act as a role model by citing sources properly in lectures and discussing how to correct citation shows respect for other scholars.

An instructor has full authority to deal with an academic dishonesty incident within the context of his/her course. Academic penalties may cover the range from a reprimand to "F" for the course grade. The instructor's action on incidents of academic integrity must be communicated to the student(s) involved as well as to the Academic Integrity Office. Refer to the Incident Reporting Process.
Students who have either a pending case or have been found to have violated the Code of Academic Ethics are not permitted to drop the course. As such, faculty are asked not to sign withdrawal forms.

Turnitin is an excellent resource that gives students and instructors access to a number of electronic tools that can help improve academic writing. It also allows students and instructors to check if a student’s paper shows high similarity to other student’s papers, internet sources, books, journals, and more. A high similarity score can indicate important problems in writing, such as plagiarism and excessive use of sources or quoting. Any faculty member should use Turnitin only if they have been trained by CLT.

It is important that all cases be reported to the Academic Integrity Office. While faculty have the right to impose academic penalties within their courses as appropriate, reporting to the AIO serves other purposes. First, it ensures that there is continuity in the application of university policies related to academic dishonesty, such as ensuring courses are not repeated with impunity. Second, it allows for monitoring of violations in order to track trends and allows for harsher sanctions for repeat offenders.

Refer to the incident reporting , adjudication processes, and disciplinary sanctions.