Academic Honesty Policy

Academic dishonesty is defined by the college as any act (such as cheating on exams, quizzes, projects, plagiarism, fabrication, or falsifying documents) by any student that would gain that student or any other student an unfair advantage or disadvantage (sabotage) in grading, graduating from the college, or qualifying for entrance into any academic program.

Academic dishonesty or academic misconduct is any type of cheating that occurs in relation to a formal academic exercise. It can include the following:

  • Utilizing or obtaining Teacher’s editions or publications not intended for student use.
  • Plagiarism: Representing the ideas of another as your own; not giving credit to the source for words
    presented as being your own work.
  • Fabrication: Faking the data in an academic exercise; presenting false information in an assignment;
    deliberately deviating from the truth.
  • Deception: Giving fabricated information to an instructor in regard to academic work; providing a false
    reason for missing a deadline or lying about submitted work.
  • Cheating: Attempting to obtain an unfair academic advantage by violating accepted rules or standards.
  • Sabotage: Stopping others from completing their work; a deliberate act of destruction to academic
    materials or disrupting an experiment or assignment.

All acts of academic dishonesty shall be reported to the Vice President of Student Services as a behavioral breach of conduct. All work that results from such acts will receive a grade of “0.” No student shall have the opportunity to make up work for which an act of academic dishonesty has been committed. All work for which the student has been assigned a “0” for cheating will be calculated into the student’s final grade. In addition, faculty may report academic dishonesty to the Vice President of Student Services with a recommendation to suspend or remove the student from the course as a penalty for their behavior. If after reviewing the situation with the student, the Vice President concludes that a disciplinary action is appropriate, the administrator shall deliver one or more of the following types of disciplinary action.

  1. Warning
  2. Reprimand
  3. Disciplinary Probation
  4. Suspension
  5. Disciplinary Suspension
  6. Expulsion

The Vice President of Student Services keeps a record of all reported violations of academic dishonesty. Depending on the severity and/or frequency of reports for a given student, the Vice President of Student Services may recommend that these acts become a part of the student’s permanent record. This record may be used as a basis for removing a student from the institution or barring a student from returning to the institution. The Vice President of Student Services reviews an alleged violation and determines if the report is fair and just, and if not, the Vice President can then act to establish fairness and due process for each case.

The student can appeal the Vice President’s decision to the Disciplinary Appeal Committee. This hearing panel is composed of two members of the ASB, two faculty appointed by the Academic Senate President, and one certificated employee appointed by the Superintendent/President of Taft College. If the student decides to appeal the decision of the Disciplinary Appeal Committee, they can appeal to the Board of Trustees of Taft College. It is the goal of this policy to maintain the integrity of the educational process while also respecting students’ rights of fair due process.