Academic Integrity

The College expects students to practice academic integrity at all times. Academic integrity refers to the adherence to moral and ethical principles in all academic work. Violations of academic integrity include, but are not limited to, cheating on tests, examinations, projects, and other assigned work, plagiarism, and violating professional ethics pertaining to any instructional settings (e.g. clinical sites, work-based learning sites, and other locations associated with field experiences).

Plagiarism is a very serious violation of academic integrity. Plagiarism is submitting work that has been written by someone other than the student or submitting work obtained from an undocumented or improperly documented resource. Students are responsible for documenting both direct quotations and paraphrased material. Direct quotations must appear within quotation marks and must be documented. Paraphrased material (written in the student's own words but taken from another source) must also be documented completely and accurately.

Violating professional ethics may include violating rules, policies, or procedures of affiliated institutions or clinical/practicum sites, along with specific health, safety, or ethical requirements to gain any unfair advantage in lab(s) or clinical assignments. Violation of clinical ethics may include fabrication or alteration of clinical records, alteration of time sheets, forgery of preceptor, patient, intern, or supervisor’s signature, violation of patient confidentiality (with or without intent) or removal of any properties from the clinic without expressed permission from a faculty member. Violation of confidentiality may include knowingly releasing confidential information inappropriately or gaining access to patient records without justification.

When a violation of academic integrity occurs, the College will follow these procedures:

The faculty member must complete the College's "Academic Integrity Violation" form and will ask the student to sign the form. If the student refuses to sign the form, the faculty member will note (on the form) the student's refusal to sign.
The faculty member must submit the form immediately to the appropriate divisional dean.
The divisional dean will submit the form to Student Services for placement in the student's academic file. Submission of the form indicates to Student Services that an "F" should be entered on the student’s transcript for the appropriate course.
The student will not have the opportunity to withdraw from the course or change from credit to audit status for that course.

Students who are found guilty of committing a second violation of academic integrity (determined by the College’s established procedures set forth in this document) will receive a grade of "F" in the course in which the violation of academic integrity occurred and will also be suspended from all College courses, programs, and activities for one year according to the following timetable:

Term of Suspension	Term of Readmission
Fall	Fall of the next year
Spring	Spring of the next year
Summer	Summer of the next year

More than two violations of academic integrity will result in denial of enrollment for a period of five (5) calendar years from the date of suspension.