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, purchased, or generated 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 Perceived Violations of Academic Integrity

  1. If a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy is suspected, the faculty member should discuss the incident with the student(s) and determine to the faculty member’s satisfaction whether or not a violation has occurred.
  2. If the faculty member determines that it is more likely than not that the student is innocent, the student should be informed of this determination in writing. No report of the incident or of the faculty/student meeting should be filed with the school dean.
  3. If the faculty member determines that it is more likely than not that a violation has occurred, they should complete an Academic Integrity Violation report, available on FalconLink, and submit the report as outlined on the first page of the form. The formal report should include a complete description of the incident, including date of the violation, the nature or type of the violation, and the nature and type of evidence. The formal report should also include appropriate sanctions. The dean will send copies of the faculty member’s report to the student’s advisor(s).
  4. Faculty teaching a course that is not housed in an academic department should send the formal report to the Associate Provost, who will direct it to the appropriate school dean or supervisor.
  5. The faculty member should keep originals of tests, papers, etc., that provide evidence of the violation.
  6. With issues related to computer offenses or misrepresentation of academic records, the case may be referred to the Dean of Students Office for processing.
  7. If a staff member or an administrator discovers violations of the Academic Integrity Policy, they should contact the dean of the school in which the violation occurred, who will contact the student.
  8. The student may appeal in writing to the academic department in which the course is offered. A student’s intent to appeal a faculty member’s response to a violation must be communicated to the department chair in writing within one week of the receipt of the written notification from the faculty member dealing with the incident. The faculty member filing the initial report of a violation should be recused from the department committee handling the appeal. A student in a course that is not housed in an academic department should appeal to the Associate Provost, who will direct the appeal to the appropriate school dean or department. The Associate Provost should ascertain that a group of faculty, with a majority of ranked faculty, will hear the appeal.
  9. The student may appeal the decision of the academic department in writing to the school dean. The dean (or assistant school dean, as designated by the dean), will consider the appeal and render a decision, which will be final.
  10. When the appeal process ends, the school dean will notify the Registrar, and determine if this is a first or second violation.

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 (or assistant school dean, as designated by the dean) will meet with the student who has committed the violation. Unless the violation is egregious, this meeting will take place after the appeal process ends.
  2. The dean of the school in which the violation occurred (or assistant school dean, as designated by the dean) 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 (or assistant school dean, as designated by the dean) 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 (or assistant school dean) in writing to the Provost, whose decision will be final.

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 is determined to be an egregious offense, the school dean (or assistant school dean, as designated by the dean) will assign appropriate sanctions that go beyond the course. In the case of an egregious offense, the school dean (with input from the assistant school dean, if needed) 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 (or assistant school dean, as designated by the dean) determines the violation to be egregious, the range of possible responses includes suspension of the student, disciplinary probation, or other appropriate sanctions.

Time and Record-Keeping Considerations

  1. Academic integrity violations should be processed in a timely manner:
    1. Faculty should report academic integrity violations within a week of their discovery.
    2. Student appeals must be filed within a week of receiving the written report of an academic integrity violation.
    3. The recipient of student appeals should acknowledge receipt of the appeal within one week. Timing constraints only apply when school is in session, but processing of violations may continue during breaks.
  1. When violations occur at the end of the semester, faculty may file a grade of incomplete until the investigation and possible appeals are complete.
  2. Academic Integrity violations will continue to be processed if the student withdraws from the course in which the violation occurred.
  3. Academic Integrity violations may be reported within one semester after the course if first discovered at that time.
  4. The final results of all Academic Integrity investigations, including all appeals, should be filed with the Registrar.
  5. A record of academic integrity violations will be maintained by the Registrar in accordance with the University’s Schedule for Records Retention. However, undergraduate records will not count against students who return as graduate students.
  6. If a student carries two majors, notification of Academic Integrity Violations will be sent to the dean of the student’s primary major.
  7. The school dean will notify the faculty member filing the report and the student’s advisor(s) of the results of all appeals. In the case of multiple or egregious violations, the school dean will also notify the dean of the school of the student’s major, if other than the reporting dean, of the results of any appeal.
  8. On-campus program areas conducting required background checks of students (for example, teacher certification, professional advisor) should submit the students’ names and ID numbers to the Registrar’s Office for clearance. The Registrar will determine that an appropriate need to know exists under FERPA guidelines.
  9. If a department chair and the Registrar have established that that department chair has an on-going need to know about academic integrity violations, the Registrar will automatically notify the department chair of any violations by students in that major after all appeals are resolved.