Academic Dishonesty

1. A Faculty member who believes that there has been plagiarism or other academic dishonesty should contact the Office of Student and Community Life to ascertain whether this is a first violation. If so, and if the Faculty member decides to offer the student the option of first violation resolution, they shall confront the student with the charge.
2. If the student admits committing the violation, chooses the First Violation Resolution Process, and signs the Faculty Member’s account of the violation, the Faculty member shall contact the chair of the Jury Pool who will schedule a meeting of the student, the Faculty member, a representative of the Dean of Students’ Office, and either the chair, the vice chair, or another member of the Pool designated by the chair or vice chair. The meeting will normally be scheduled within ten business days of the student and Faculty member agreeing to the First Violation Resolution Process.
3. Prior to the meeting, the Faculty member will discuss precedents regarding proposed grade penalties with the member of the Jury Pool who will be in attendance; the final decision will rest with the Faculty member. The maximum sanction that may be imposed under the First Violation Resolution Process is failure of the course. At the meeting, the student will sign a statement admitting responsibility and accepting the proposed penalty. The statement will be forwarded to the Office of Student and Community Life as a record of the student’s first offense.
4. In the case of a student ineligible for first violation resolution, or who is not afforded the opportunity for it, or who declines it, a Faculty member intending to impose a grade penalty for academic dishonest must submit a letter of complaint with supporting documents to the Office of Student and Community Life. A hearing will normally be promptly scheduled. Notification of the hearing and a list of the members of the Hearing Panel will be given to the Faculty member and the accused student. (See “Procedures in Cases of Academic Dishonesty” for hearing procedures governing student conduct)
5. A copy of the charge and specifications will be provided to the accused student, who is expected to attend the hearing. The accused student may be accompanied at the hearing by an advisor. The advisor, who must be a current Faculty, staff, or student member of the Trinity Community, may give the student advice in the course of the hearing but may not speak at the hearing on the student’s behalf or otherwise function at the hearing as defense counsel might in a legal proceeding.
6. The Faculty member will be expected to attend the hearing and may be questioned.
7. Ordinarily, the Hearing Panel will first hear the Faculty member bringing the charge. The Faculty member may make a statement, after which they will be questioned by members of the Hearing Panel and then by the accused student. Next, the accused student may make a statement, after which the accused student will be questioned by members of the Hearing Panel and then by the Faculty member.
8. The Faculty member and the accused student may call material fact (not character) witnesses, who may be questioned by members of the Hearing Panel and by parties to the case. The witnesses will be heard in an order determined by the Chair. Normally, each witness will be present at the hearing only when giving testimony. The chair of the panel will inform each witness not to discuss the case outside of the hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Faculty member will make a closing statement affirming or revising the grading penalty they intend to impose should the student be found responsible for the violation.
9. In cases where more than one student has been charged with academic dishonesty, all of the accused students may be present when any one of their number is addressing the Hearing Panel.
10. Academic dishonesty hearings are closed, and the proceedings are kept confidential.
11. Any member of a Hearing Panel or an Appeal Panel who is party to a case shall disqualify themselves for that case.
12. A student found to have violated the academic honesty policy of the Integrity Contract may be assigned a penalty in addition to the one proposed by the Faculty member from one of three penalty categories—censure, suspension, or expulsion— depending on the severity of the offense. The penalty categories are described below:
    1. Censure: The penalty when the act of academic dishonesty involves cheating on a quiz or an examination, the limited use of unattributed sources (written or oral) in a paper, or other dishonest acts of comparable magnitude.
    2. Suspension: The penalty for repeated cheating on one or more quizzes or examinations, for extensive plagiarism, or for other dishonest acts of comparable magnitude. This penalty will also be imposed for an offense in a course after the instructor has warned the student in writing or when a student who has already been censured for academic dishonesty commits a second censurable offense.
    3. Expulsion: The penalty when a second penalty of suspension is warranted.
13. Within the penalty categories censure and suspension, the Hearing Panel shall determine the length of the censure or the suspension; the conditions, if any, under which a censure may be removed from the student’s permanent record; the conditions under which a student on suspension may return, and any other factors it may deem relevant to the penalty for the case heard.
14. The record of each hearing shall consist of a written summary and a recording of the entire hearing that shall be kept on file in the Office of Student and Community Life until the matter is concluded and no further appeal is possible. In the event of an appeal, these materials will be made available to the appellant, the Faculty member who brought the case, and the Academic Dishonesty Appeal Panel hearing the case.
15. The Office of Student and Community Life shall inform the faculty advisor after a student has undergone a First Violation Resolution. Where a First Violation Resolution is not involved, the Office of Student and Community Life shall notify a student’s faculty advisor when it receives a letter from a Faculty member alleging that the student has violated the academic dishonesty policy. The Office of Student and Community Life shall inform the advisor of the result after a decision is rendered in a student’s academic dishonesty case by a hearing panel or appeals panel.

The Faculty Jury Pool has been established to staff the Faculty portion of academic dishonesty and social misconduct hearing panels, and the Faculty portion of academic dishonesty and social misconduct appeal panels.

1. The Jury Pool chair and/or vice-chair shall select the Pool members for academic dishonesty hearings and appeals and if necessary, designate a Pool member to attend a first violation resolution meeting.
2. Academic dishonesty hearing panels consist of two students drawn from the Honor Council, and three Faculty members drawn from the Jury Pool. Chaired by a Faculty member, they hear cases of academic dishonesty brought against students.
3. Academic dishonesty appeal panels consist of two Faculty members drawn from the Jury Pool and one student drawn from the Honor Council. Chaired by a Faculty member, they consider appeals from students found to have violated the academic dishonesty policies of the Student Integrity Contract.
4. A Pool member who sits on a hearing panel may not serve on an appeal panel convened to consider the case in question.
5. When classes are out of sessions, hearing and appeal panels will consist of three members of the Jury Pool.
6. The Dean of students or designated Associate Dean shall be a non-voting participant on all hearing and appeal panels. The Dean of Students is charged with implementing the panels’ decision.

1. Majority vote of the members of the hearing panel shall determine whether the accused student has violated any College regulations or policies regarding intellectual honesty. The hearing panel will use the standard of “preponderance of the evidence” (i.e., whether it is “more likely than not” that a violation has occurred) to make its decision.
2. If the panel finds that the student has violated regulations or policies regarding intellectual honesty and has assigned one of the three penalty categories censure, suspension, or  expulsion–, the penalty category for academic dishonesty will be recorded on the students’ transcript. Permanent censures, suspensions, and expulsions are permanently recorded on the students’ permanent record (transcript).
3. The dean will normally notify the student of the panel’s decision within five business days of its findings.
4. The dean may modify these procedures at their discretion to fit particular situations as long as any modification presents no advantage in favor of, or any bias against any party to the complaint.
5. Normally, the Honor Council shall function only during those periods of the academic year when classes are in session. At other times the dean may choose either to hold a complaint in abeyance until classes resume or to have the case heard by a panel, which may be modified as necessary.

1. Basis for Appeal
   1. Respondents who have been found to have violated a College regulation and have received a sanction(s) of censure, suspension, or expulsion, may appeal the outcome, if the student believes they have grounds (as defined below) to appeal the decision of the original hearing panel. The student must notify the designated dean of students in writing within five business days of the initial decision. The appellant’s petition must indicate the grounds for an appeal and outline the evidence supporting the claim. The decision may be appealed only on the basis of one or more of the following grounds:
      1. Discovery of new factual information that was not known or available at the time of the adjudication and the presentation of which would have affected the original outcome. Omission of factual information that was known and available to the appealing party is not a valid ground for an appeal;
      2. Material procedural error that rendered the adjudication fundamentally unfair;
      3. Abuse of discretion in the issuance of a sanction, meaning that the imposed sanction was significantly disproportionate to the offense; or
      4. Evidence of bias in the adjudication.
   2. Upon receipt of the letter of appeal, the dean will review the appeal and determine whether the request meets the criteria for appeal. If the dean determines that there is no basis for an appeal, they will inform the appellant of the decision, along with a rationale for denying the appeal. If the dean determines that reconsideration is warranted, they will assemble an appeal panel who will (a) rehear the case in its entirety, (b) conduct a limited basis rehearing that would focus on the new information presented, or (c) review the penalty. The appeal panel may not change the penalty category; however, should the appeal panel conclude from its deliberations that probable cause exists to believe that the penalty assigned by the original hearing panel is from an inappropriate penalty category, it may refer the case back to the panel for reconsideration with its grounds for resubmission.
2. Procedure for Appeal Panel
   1. The dean will give the appellant fair notice of the appeal panel meeting, where the appellant will have the opportunity to address the board to clarify points raised and to answer questions. The board may also call the complainant. Should the complainant or respondent not appear when summoned, the panel will conduct the proceeding without the benefit of their input.
   2. The appellant may be accompanied at the proceeding by an adviser. During the appeal meeting, the adviser may confer with the appellant but may not participate directly in the proceeding. All advisers must be members of the College community (i.e., current student, faculty, or staff). It is the appellant’s responsibility to inform their adviser of the parameters of the adviser’s role and the time and place of the hearing.
   3. In cases where more than one student has been charged with academic dishonesty, the panel reserves the right to question each student individually without the other student(s) present.
   4. One or more representatives of the original hearing panel shall summarize the findings and rationale of the original proceeding for the appeal panel.
   5. The complainant, appellant, and/or appeal panel may call material witnesses. Each witness shall appear before the panel only when giving testimony and may be questioned by members of the panel. The appeal panel reserves the right to determine which parties they will hear. It is the responsibility of the person seeking witness testimony to advise them of the time and place of the appeal. Should the witness not appear at the appeal meeting, the panel will proceed without the benefit of the witnesses’ input.
   6. Academic dishonesty appeals are closed, and the proceedings are kept confidential.
   7. The dean may modify these procedures at their discretion to fit particular situations as long as any modification presents no advantage in favor of, or any bias against any party to the complaint.
3. Deliberations and Findings
   1. After review of relevant materials, or after rehearing the case, the panel will determine by majority vote that the original decision and sanction be upheld, or that the decision and/or sanctions be modified, and it will forward its findings to the dean for implementation.
   2. The dean will normally notify the appellant of the panel’s decision within five business days of its findings.
   3. If the case is reviewed or reheard by an appeal panel or hearing panel, that decision is final.

Normally, hearings and appeals function during the academic year (i.e., until the last day of classes of a given semester.). At other times the dean may choose either to hold a request for an appeal in abeyance until classes resume or to permit the request to go forward and be reviewed by an appeals panel, which may be modified as necessary.

1. The respondent may write a response to the charge and submit that along with any other relevant materials that they want to be considered, to the dean. This response letter is due within five days of being notified of the complaint.
2. Should the complainant or respondent not appear for the hearing, the panel will reserve the right to conduct a hearing without the benefit of the complainant’s or respondent’s input.
3. The confidential recording of the hearing is the property of the College and may not be copied or reproduced without the permission of the dean of students or their designee. In situations where a decision of the hearing panel is granted an appeal, the appellant may request to review the recording. If the request is granted, the dean of students will arrange for the respondent to review the recording in the Office of Student and Community Life. The College will not provide a written transcript of the hearing to the appellant.
4. Withdrawal from the college will not constitute grounds to dismiss any charges that are brought against a student. In cases in which a student withdraws from the College before the adjudication process is complete, the College may proceed to adjudicate the complaint and/or place a notation on the students record indicating that the student withdrew with charges pending. The dean reserves the right to place a notation of pending charges on the students’ transcript until the process is complete.
5. We recommend that students take advantage of the various resources available to them, including their faculty advisors, parents/guardians, counseling and other support systems.
6. The Dean of Students or designated dean shall select the Honor Council members for hearing or appeal panels.
7. If the complainant or respondent has reason to believe that a member of the panel cannot hear the case fairly and objectively, the complainant should notify the dean in writing in advance of the hearing, citing the reasons for the challenge, and an alternate shall be seated if possible if the objection is warranted.
8. When classes are out of session (i.e., after the last day of classes of a given semester), hearing and appeal panels will consist of three members of the Jury Pool.

Should too few members of the Jury Pool and/or Honor Council be available to constitute a normal panel, the Jury Pool Chair and dean will consult on selecting appropriate panelists.