Policies and Procedures

General Overview

The role of maintaining academic integrity is the responsibility of both faculty and the student. In this policy, the expectations for both faculty and students are outlined below.

Faculty Responsibilities

The maintenance of academic integrity and quality education is the responsibility of each faculty within this University and the CSU system. Evaluation of student performance is the exclusive province of the faculty. The faculty has the responsibility to make reasonable efforts to guarantee that work is done by the student who is to receive credit for its completion. Faculty should clearly state all relevant guidelines for academic integrity in the course syllabus. Examinations should be appropriately proctored or monitored to prevent students from copying or exchanging information. The authenticity of quotations and references should be reviewed to assure the faculty member that proper credit is given for ideas and information taken from other sources.

Student Responsibilities

The maintenance of academic integrity and quality education is the responsibility of each student within this University and the CSU system. Cheating or plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a CSU campus is listed in Section 41301, Title 5, California Code of Regulations (Cal. Code Regs. tit. 5, § 41301 (2025) as an offense for which a student may be expelled, suspended or given a less severe disciplinary sanction. Academic dishonesty is an especially serious offense and diminishes the quality of scholarship and defrauds those who depend on the integrity of the University’s programs. Such dishonesty includes:

Cheating

Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information or study aids in any academic exercise.

Faculty Responsibility

1. Faculty members should state in advance their policies and procedures concerning examinations and other academic exercises (e.g. such as use of artificial intelligence) in their syllabi and assignments, as well as the use before examinations of shared study aids, examination files and other related materials and forms of assistance.

Student Responsibilities

1. Students completing any examination should assume that external assistance (e.g., books, notes, calculators, cell phones/cameras, other electronic devices, use of artificial intelligence, conversation with others) is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the instructor.
2. Students must not allow others to conduct research or prepare any work for them without advance authorization from the instructor. This includes but is not limited to the services of commercial term paper companies or websites.
3. Substantial portions of the same academic work may not be submitted for credit in more than one course without authorization.

Fabrication

Intentional falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.

Student Responsibilities

1. “Invented” information may not be used in any laboratory experiment or other academic exercise without notice to and authorization from the instructor. It would be improper, for example, to analyze one sample in an experiment and covertly “invent” data based on that single experiment for several more required analyses.
2. One should acknowledge reliance upon the actual source from which cited information was obtained. For example, a writer should not reproduce a quotation from a book review and indicate that the quotation was obtained from the book itself.
3. Students who attempt to alter and resubmit returned academic work with intent to defraud the faculty member will be in violation of this section. For example, a student may not change an answer on a returned exam and then claim that they deserve additional credit.

Plagiarism

Representing the words, ideas or work of another as one’s own in any academic exercise.

Student Responsibilities

1. Direct Quotation: Every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks, by appropriate indentation or by other means of identification. Students should refer to the formatting guidance (e.g., citations) presented by their instructors or within the conventions of their discipline.
2. Paraphrase: Subject to faculty instructions. Prompt acknowledgment is required when material from another source is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in your own words. Students should refer to the formatting presented by their instructors or within the conventions of their discipline.
3. Borrowed Facts or Information: Subject to faculty instructions. Information obtained in one’s reading or research that is not common knowledge among students in the course must be acknowledged (this includes the use of artificial intelligence). Examples of common knowledge might include the names of leaders of prominent nations, basic scientific laws, etc.

Materials that contribute only to one’s general understanding of the subject may be acknowledged. When direct quotations are used, however, quotation marks must be inserted and prompt acknowledgment is required.

Facilitating Academic Dishonesty

Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic dishonesty. For example, students who knowingly allowed another to copy from their paper during an examination would be in violation of this section.

Penalties for Academic Dishonesty

Faculty Responsibilities

Pursuant to the Student Conduct Code, all actions taken by faculty based on student academic dishonesty, including the imposition of a grade penalty, must be reported to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. If faculty members do not request disciplinary action against a student, they should still report acts of academic dishonesty to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs in case the student has engaged, or continues to engage, in such behavior in other classes, departments or colleges. Disciplinary records of any action of academic dishonesty are retained in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. These records may be available to prospective employers and other educational institutions, in accordance with federal and state regulations. In short, students committing any act of academic dishonesty will run a serious risk of harming their future educational or employment opportunities.

Having carried out these responsibilities, if, in the faculty member’s opinion, there is evidence of academic dishonesty on the part of a student, it is the faculty member’s responsibility to take action against the student as described in the options below.

Communication with the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs also may assist the faculty member in determining which option or combination of options to exercise. Depending upon the severity of the offense and the student’s disciplinary history as it relates to acts of academic dishonesty, the faculty member may elect to exercise the following options:

1. Assign a lower or failing grade to an assignment, examination or the entire course. In cases in which the faculty member elects to exercise the grade-penalty option, the faculty member must inform the student that academic dishonesty was a factor in the evaluation. In cases where the sanction for an act of academic dishonesty has been the assignment of a grade penalty without a simultaneous request for formal disciplinary action and in which the student wishes to challenge the grade penalty assigned, the student may file an appeal with the Academic Grievance and Grade Appeals Board.
2. Request that the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs notify the student that information related to the student’s alleged act of academic dishonesty within that particular class has been forwarded to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. Such notifications are in the form of an admonitory letter and serve to inform the student that the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs is aware of the alleged incident and that formal disciplinary action will not be taken. The admonitory letter also apprises the student of the Student Conduct Code and of sanctions that would be levied for violations of that code, and affords the student an opportunity to meet with the Student Conduct Coordinator to discuss the matter. The admonitory letter will not be released for any purpose and will not become part of the student’s permanent record.
3. Request disciplinary action against the student. Student discipline is exclusively the province of the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. In such cases, the faculty member, through the department chair and college dean, should submit a formal written report of the incident to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and request formal disciplinary action. The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs is empowered to investigate all instances of academic dishonesty. The cases are resolved either through an appropriate action accepted by the student or through a disciplinary hearing. The faculty member, department chair and college dean will be notified of the final disposition of the case. In cases where the faculty member chooses both to impose a grade penalty and requests formal student disciplinary action against the student and the student wishes to challenge the grade penalty, the student may file an appeal with the Academic Grievance and Grade Appeals Board only after the student disciplinary case has been fully adjudicated pursuant to the CSU Student Conduct Process.

Note: The information in this section was adapted with permission from the University of Maryland [1980] and is also taken from the Academic Dishonesty Policy approved by the CSUN Faculty Senate, May 13, 1982.

Student Responsibilities

Students who want to report an act of academic dishonesty should contact the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs/Dean of Students, which investigate such reports. While reports may be submitted anonymously, disciplinary action cannot be taken on the basis of anonymous reports alone.