Academic Honesty Policy at Richmindale

Document No. ACA-1034

Revision No. 25-02 on Feb 1, 2025

1. Purpose

This policy establishes the expectations for academic honesty at Richmindale College and outlines procedures for addressing violations. It ensures that all students uphold integrity in their academic work and understand the consequences of academic dishonesty.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all students of Richmindale College

3. Policy

Richmindale College takes academic honesty very seriously. Students are expected to always submit original work, and outside sources should be appropriately credited whenever used. Works that require citation include, but are not limited to, hard copy or electronic publications (copyrighted or not), and communication (verbal or otherwise) originating from identifiable sources. Academic dishonesty occurs when:

students are involved in cheating, or plagiarism, such as using words or ideas that are not their original work in assignments;

citations are not included for all used outside sources;

work is recycled from another course taken by the same students (unless agreed with the instructor in advance);

students are involved in identity misrepresentation;

students provide false or misleading information; or

documents or records, such as transcripts or diplomas, are forged, altered, misused, etc.

Faculty members are trained and encouraged to prevent plagiarism in their classes. Some steps in that direction are for a faculty member to make it clear, through announcements or assignment instructions, what constitutes plagiarism (as well as the potential consequences), and how assignments and citations should be formatted. Both students and faculty members are encouraged to check assignments using plagiarism checker software. Instances of plagiarism are addressed immediately.

Academic Honesty Procedure

When a faculty member determines that academic dishonesty in an assignment has occurred, the faculty member can address the issue directly with the student by considering one of the following options:

Educating the student on plagiarism (whenever it is unintentional or due to deficiency in understanding of what plagiarism is);

Allowing a student to resubmit the assignment; or

Taking steps to report the offence using the procedure below along with a disciplinary action such as reducing the grade on the assignment, issuing a Failing grade on the assignment, or issuing a Failing grade for the course.

If the instructor and student cannot resolve the plagiarism issue, the instructor submits an Academic Dishonesty Complaint form to the Chief Academic Officer or designee through the Richmindale website on RIMS > Dashboard > Academics > Dishonesty, or copy and paste the link www.richmindale.com/rims/academics/dishonesty in a web browser. An email notification with a copy of the complaint is sent to the student’s official email. The student has an opportunity to respond to the allegation by replying to the email copy of the Dishonesty Complaint form.

The Chief Academic Officer or designee assigns a Conduct Review Committee, which reviews the forms and communications, and determines an appropriate action to address the issue. Some of the possible outcomes include student removal from class, loss of semester credit, documented Richmindale College Academic Catalog revision 02/25 Page 48 of 70 counseling, or in extreme cases, expulsion from Richmindale College. The Chief Executive Officer of Richmindale College is informed of all reported instances and the actions taken.

The student has the right to appeal the decision on RIMS > Dashboard > Academics > Dishonesty, or copy and paste the link www.richmindale.com/rims/academics/dishonesty/appeal in a web browser. All actions are based on the severity of the offense.

4. References

None.