Academic Integrity Policy

Personal integrity is a behavioral expectation for all members of the Messiah community: administration, faculty, staff, and students. Violations of academic integrity are not consistent with the community standards of Messiah University. These violations include:

  • Plagiarism: Submitting as one’s own work part or all of any assignment (oral or written) which is copied, paraphrased, or purchased from another source, including online sources, without the proper acknowledgment of that source. Examples: failing to cite a reference, failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, misrepresenting another’s work as your own, etc.
  • Cheating: Attempting to use or using unauthorized material or study aids for personal assistance in examinations or other academic work. Examples: using a cheat sheet, altering a graded exam, looking at a peer’s exam, having someone else take the exam for you, sharing information about exams, using any kind of electronic mobile or storage devices (such as cell phones, iPads, Flash drives, DVD’s, CD’s, photocopy pens) for unapproved purposes, communicating via email, IM, or text messaging during an exam, using the internet, sniffers, spyware or other software to retrieve information or other students’ answers, etc.
  • Fabrication: Submitting altered or contrived information in any academic exercise. Examples: falsifying sources and/or data, etc.
  • Misrepresentation of Academic Records: Tampering with any portion of a student’s record. Example: forging a signature on a registration form or change of grade form.
  • Facilitating Academic Dishonesty: Helping another individual violate this policy. Examples: working together on an assignment where collaboration is not allowed, doing work for another student, allowing one’s own work to be copied.
  • Computer Offenses: Altering or damaging computer programs without permission. Examples: software piracy, constructing viruses, introducing viruses into a system, copying copyrighted programs, etc.
  • Unfair Advantage: Attempting to gain advantage over fellow students in an academic exercise. Examples: lying about the need for an extension on a paper, destroying or removing library materials, etc.

PROCEDURES FOR MULTIPLE OR EGREGIOUS VIOLATIONS OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

  1. If the student has committed two or more violations of academic integrity, or if the Dean determines that the violation is egregious, the Dean of the school in which the violation occurred will meet with the student who has committed the violation. Unless the violation is egregious, this meeting will take place after the appeals process ends.
  2. The Dean of the school in which the violation occurred will consult with the faculty member who first determined that a violation had occurred; with that faculty member’s Department Chair; and with the Dean of the school of the student’s major, if other than the reporting Dean. The Dean of the school in which the violation occurred will determine appropriate sanctions.
  3. The Dean of the school in which the violation occurred will notify the student in writing of the sanctions determined, and send copies to the student’s advisor(s) and to the Dean of the school of the student’s major, if other than the reporting Dean.
  4. The student may appeal the decision of the School Dean in writing to the Provost, whose decision will be final.
  5. The Dean notifies the Registrar at the conclusion of the process. They determine if it is the student’s first or second violation.

PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS OF THE ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY

  1. In all instances of violations of the Academic Integrity Policy, the faculty member will assign sanctions within the context of the course. If the violation is a second offense, or it is determined to be an egregious offense, the School Dean will assign appropriate sanctions that go beyond the course. In the case of an egregious offense, the Dean may temporarily suspend the student before and during any appeal process.
  2. For a non-egregious first offense, a faculty member may exercise broad discretion when responding to violations of the Academic Integrity Policy. The range of responses may include failure of the course to a grade reduction of the given assignment. The typical consequence for violations will be failure of the assignment. Some examples of serious offenses which might necessitate the penalty of the failure of the course include cheating on an examination, plagiarism of a complete assignment, etc.
  3. The policy of the University is to act, whenever possible, in redemptive rather than merely punitive ways. We believe that simply to ignore an offense is to be neither loving nor redemptive. Consequently, if a second report of a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy is received, or if the Dean determines that violation to be egregious, the range of possible responses includes suspension of the student, disciplinary probation, or other appropriate sanctions.