Academic Misconduct (continued)
Friday, September 12, 2025
1:48 PM
course syllabus. It is your responsibility to understand the definitions and consequences of academic misconduct.
Definition of Academic Misconduct
As defined in the Student Code, academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, cheating, misrepresenting one’s work, inappropriately collaborating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of information. It also includes facilitating academic misconduct by intentionally helping or attempting to help another student to commit an act of academic misconduct. A primary example of academic misconduct would be submitting an assignment that has been copied from an unauthorized outside source such as a solution manual or another student’s work. However, in this day of electronic gadgets, it is also important to note that other, less obvious, forms of cheating can occur. For example, an instructor has a rule banning cell phone usage during an exam. A student who is seen texting or even using their cell phone as a calculator could be perceived as committing academic misconduct. Another case may be were you work together on a spreadsheet assignment but rather than create your own individual document, you print out 4 copies of the same spreadsheet. Again, many instructors would consider this cheating. The consequences are severe. Know and follow your instructor’s rules!
Detailed information of what is considered academic misconduct for a specific class is defined by the CVEEN course instructor and is found in the course syllabus. If a student has questions about the information contained in the syllabus, they should seek clarification from the instructor rather than rely on a third-party interpretation. An individual’s academic misconduct is tracked by the CVEEN Department of all of its courses. Information regarding prior offenses is available to the Chair of the Undergraduate Committee, the Chair of the Graduate Committee, the CVEEN Chair, and CVEEN office staff. CVEEN course instructors will not have access to this information to avoid unfair scrutiny of previous academic misconduct offenders. 
Sanctions and Appeals
Two options apply when an instance of academic misconduct is discovered:
Fail-the-course Option
The default sanction for an academic misconduct offense is a failing grade for the course. Thus, unless explicitly stated in any CVEEN course syllabus, cheating means an E. This sanction will be placed in the student’s departmental file and count as a full violation (1 point) towards permanent program dismissal.
Less than Fail-the-course Option
© Steven F. Bartlett 2025