Academic Honesty

Academic honesty is of utmost importance to Howard Community College (HCC). Broadly, academic honesty means incorporating one’s own thoughts and materials in all academic activities (e.g., papers, projects, lab reports). A violation of academic honesty involves misrepresentation, the submission of materials for evaluation that are not the student’s own, or fulfillment of an academic exercise that does not result from individual effort or intellectual production. Examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to: unauthorized use or copying of materials, unauthorized assistance with assignments, unauthorized use of devices or tools, unauthorized prior knowledge of the contents of assessment instruments, such as exams, quizzes, or surveys, and falsification or fabrication of information. 

Policy and procedures related to academic honesty are communicated through the college catalog, schedule of classes, and faculty and student handbooks. At a minimum, all catalogs, schedules of classes, and syllabi will contain the following statement: “Academic honesty, as defined in the Student Handbook, is expected of all students.”

To preserve the value of educational endeavors at HCC, faculty and students will exhibit academic honesty through the following core values:

• Integrity: doing quality work that reflects one’s best effort, honesty, and originality;
• Respect: giving credit to those who assist in educational endeavors; and
• Excellence: demonstrating a high standard of ethical behavior.

HCC maintains the following expectations for each student. Students will:

• submit work that represents the individual’s own achievements, investigations, and study;
• craft original work, contribute fairly to a group product, and acknowledge collaborators, even in collaborative learning opportunities; and
• present data that is a result of the student’s own research, laboratory results, observations, and investigations, when reporting investigated results.

Students are expected to give full credit for the borrowing of others’ words or ideas. Intentional or unintentional use of another’s words or ideas without giving credit constitutes plagiarism. There are four common forms of plagiarism:

• duplication of an author’s words without quotation marks and accurate references or footnotes;
• duplication of an author’s words or phrases with footnotes or accurate references, but without quotation marks;
• use of an author’s ideas in paraphrase without accurate references or footnotes; or
• submission of a paper in which exact words are merely rearranged even though footnoted.

Every student is expected to submit work for a course or for any other academic purpose that has been done solely for that course or for that purpose. If the same or similar work is submitted to any other course or used for any other academic purpose within the college, prior written permission of the instructor must be obtained.

Any student intentionally aiding another student in any infraction of the academic honesty policy is considered equally responsible. 

Faculty reserve the right to establish course-level policies in conjunction with, and in addition to, the stated academic honesty policy, provided that these policies are clearly delineated in the course syllabus.

Procedures for dealing with infractions of the academic honesty policy follow. An infraction of academic honesty remains on a student’s disciplinary record for seven years.

First Infraction

The faculty member will give the student a “0” or its equivalent on the paper, examination, or presentation in question. In developmental mathematics, the policy in the syllabus will be followed. The faculty member will notify the student and explain the reason for the grade. This action could result in a lower final grade. The appropriate dean and designee will be informed of the infraction in writing and the vice president of student services or designee will notify the student in writing of the consequences and implications of this infraction.

Second Infraction

The faculty member will give the student a “0” on the paper, examination, or presentation in question. A second infraction of the academic honesty policy, either in the same course or in another course, will also result in an automatic “F” in the course in which the second infraction occurred. Upon written notification from the appropriate dean and designee that an academic honesty infraction occurred, and a determination is made that a second infraction has occurred, the vice president of student services or designee will notify the student of the “F” for the course and make the faculty member aware that a second infraction has occurred. The student will be dropped from the course and barred from further class participation.

In cases where the second infraction occurs in the same course, the faculty member will notify the student and explain the reason for the “F” in the course; otherwise, the vice president of student services or designee will notify the student of the “F” in the course. The vice president of student services or designee will notify the registrar that the student is to receive an “F” for the course. The vice president of student services or designee will meet with the student involved and apprise the student of the implication of this second infraction.

Third Infraction

The faculty member shall give the student a “0” on the paper, examination, or presentation in question. The faculty member will notify the student and explain the reason for the grade. A third infraction of the academic honesty policy will also result in an automatic “F” in the course in which the third infraction occurred. Upon notification from the appropriate dean and designee that an academic honesty infraction occurred and a determination is made that a third infraction has occurred, the vice president of student services or designee will notify the student of the “F” for the course and make the faculty member aware that a third infraction has occurred. The student will be dropped from the course and barred from further class participation. The vice president of student services or designee will also notify the registrar that the student is to receive an “F” for the course. A third infraction of the academic honesty policy will result in disciplinary action as determined through the student judicial process.

Appeals

A student intending to appeal an infraction of the academic honesty policy should follow the academic complaint procedure.