Southern Nazarene University

Academic Standards and Guidelines For Academic Integrity

The academic standards for students follow the published guidelines in the SNU catalog unless otherwise noted here.

Southern Nazarene University seeks to support and promote qualities of academic honesty and personal integrity. Serious offenses against the university community include cheating, plagiarism, and all forms of academic dishonesty. Any student who knowingly assists another student in dishonest behavior is equally responsible.

Academic violations and dishonesty is defined as the deception of others about one's own work or about the work of another.

Examples of academic violations include, but are not limited to:

1. Submitting another's work as one's own or allowing another to submit one's work as though it were his or hers.
2. Failure to properly acknowledge authorities quoted, cited or consulted in the preparation of written work (plagiarism).
3. The use of a textbook or notes during an examination without permission of the instructor.
4. The receiving or giving of unauthorized help on assignments.
5. Tampering with experimental data to obtain a "desired" result or creating results for experiments not done.
6. Tampering with or destroying the work of others.
7. Submitting substantial portions of the same academic work for credit or honors more than once without permission of the present instructor.
8. Lying about academic matters.
9. Falsifying college records, forms or other documents.
10. Unauthorized access of computer systems or files.
11. Violating copyright of any form of media.

Students who are guilty of academic violations can expect to be penalized. An instructor whose definition of cheating may differ from that stated above has the responsibility and obligation to so inform the students, in writing, at the beginning of the course. Those instructors who fail to do so have no basis for disciplinary action in instances of purported student dishonesty outside of the above provisions.

The course instructor shall have the authority to deal with instances of academic dishonesty within the following guidelines:

1. Courses of action may include, but are not limited to, the following:

a. Work may not be redone and no credit will be given for that particular assignment.
b. The student may receive a failing grade for the course.
c. Work may be redone for partial credit.
d. Alternate assignments may be given for partial credit.

2. Faculty members must report any incident of violation of the policy on academic integrity to the GSM Director and Vice Provost, Professional and Graduate Studies. Following two reports against a particular student, action will be initiated under provisions of the judicial code and may lead to dismissal of the student from the university.

The student has the right to appeal action under this policy through the regular channels as established by the grade appeals process.