Academic Integrity

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Academic Integrity is an important part of maintaining a healthy and equitable learning environment. Golden West College has the responsibility of ensuring that grades are truly indicative of the student’s learned knowledge as exhibited in the classroom and through their coursework. Acts of academic dishonesty make it impossible to fulfill this responsibility and weakens the quality of education on our campus, the fair assignment of grades, and our college’s reputation. Faculty, students, administrators, and classified staff share responsibility for ensuring academic integrity in our college community and will make a concerted effort to fulfill the following responsibilities.

Golden West College faculty and students share responsibility for ensuring that academic integrity in our classes. Coast Community College District students are to refrain from engaging in academic dishonesty. The Coast Community College District’s Student Code of Conduct Administrative Procedures (AP 5500) apply to all students whose conduct violates academic integrity.

Faculty have the obligation to educate their students on what constitutes academic dishonesty and design their courses in a way that actively discourages violations and makes doing so difficult.

Students have the responsibility to ensure that all the work they do is their own and complies with the expectations of the course. Examples of academic dishonesty are listed below.

The student will be spoken to first to explain and assess the nature of the violation.
An oral or written reprimand alone may be issued, for example, in such cases where there is reasonable doubt that the student knew they had violated academic integrity standards and that the violation itself is deemed to be minor.
If the faculty determines that the violation is sufficiently egregious (such as cheating on a test, plagiarizing part of or an entire assignment, having another student complete an assignment, etc.), the instructor may deduct points from the assignment, including assigning an “F” on it. Your instructor may provide examples and information on what constitutes an egregious violation in their classroom on their syllabus.
Any actions that result in a penalty on an assignment that impacts the student’s grade in the course will be reported using Golden West College’s “Incident Reporting Form”. This report will be processed by the College Disciplinary Officer or their designee.
Once a report is filed, all procedures as outlined in AP 5500 will be followed. Students will be contacted and informed of any further disciplinary actions that may be taken as well as the processes for appealing the academic integrity violation and its punishment.
During the appeals process, faculty may be asked for information and/or evidence regarding the offense. The initial part of the process is meant to be investigative to gain insight into the accusations, potential guilt, and punishments. The goal is to protect academic integrity and ensure that all parties are treated fairly. Faculty may be asked to provide, for example: a copy of the assignment and the sources it was copied from (in cases of copying or plagiarism), a statement on what occurred in the classroom (in cases of cheating with another student in-class), video evidence (in cases of cheating during an online exam), etc. Faculty are encouraged to consult with their department chairs, Deans, and fellow faculty during this process. The College Disciplinary Officer or their designee is also encouraged to consult with these groups to obtain a proper understanding of the situation from the faculty’s and discipline’s viewpoint.

In addition to the list of common violations of integrity listed below, the Golden West College library has a resource to help students ensure they maintain proper academic integrity: Understanding Academic Dishonesty.

Students are encouraged to ask their instructors for clarification if they are concerned they might violate academic integrity policies. This list does not cover everything that constitutes academic misconduct but just contains the most common violations:

Obtaining information from another student during an examination.
Communicating information to another student during an examination.
Knowingly allowing another student to copy one’s work.
Offering another person’s work as one’s own, such as by copying or having someone else do the assignment.
Taking an examination for another student or having someone take an examination for oneself.
Sharing answers for a take-home examination unless specifically authorized by the instructor.
Using unauthorized material during an examination.
Altering a graded examination or assignment and returning it for additional credit.
Having another person or a company do the research and/or writing of an assigned paper or report.
Misreporting or altering the data in laboratory or research projects.
Using a speech, essay, discussion board posting, course assignment, report, project or paper done for one class in another class unless specifically authorized by the instructors.
Presenting another person’s work as one’s own: copying a speech, essay, report, discussion board posting, project or paper from another person or from other sources.
Using outside sources (books, or other written sources) without giving proper credit (by naming the source and putting any exact words in quotation marks).

Sample syllabus statement (long):

Faculty have the obligation to educate their students on what constitutes academic dishonesty and design their courses in a way that actively discourages violations and makes doing so difficult.

Students have the responsibility to ensure that all the work they do is their own and complies with the expectations of the course. Examples of academic dishonesty are listed below.

The student will be spoken to first to explain and assess the nature of the violation.
An oral or written reprimand alone may be issued, for example, in such cases where there is reasonable doubt that the student knew they had violated academic integrity standards and that the violation itself is deemed to be minor.
If the faculty determines that the violation is sufficiently egregious (such as cheating on a test, plagiarizing part of or an entire assignment, having another student complete an assignment, etc.), the instructor may deduct points from the assignment, including assigning an “F” on it. Your instructor may provide examples and information on what constitutes an egregious violation in their classroom on their syllabus.
Any actions that result in a penalty on an assignment that impacts the student’s grade in the course will be reported using Golden West College’s “Incident Reporting Form”. This report will be processed by the College Disciplinary Officer or their designee.
Once a report is filed, all procedures as outlined in AP 5500 will be followed. Students will be contacted and informed of any further disciplinary actions that may be taken as well as the processes for appealing the academic integrity violation and its punishment.

Students are encouraged to ask their instructors for clarification if they are concerned they might violate academic integrity policies. In general, if a student is doing their own work, properly citing the sources they use, and not helping or receiving help from others on assignments (unless specifically permitted to), then they are unlikely to violate any policies. Below is a list of common violations. This list does not cover everything that constitutes academic misconduct but just contains the most common violations. All of these should be assumed to be egregious violations which can result in a reduction of points/lowering of a grade on the relevant assignment(s):

(Be sure the list includes the common ways students might violate policies, especially the inadvertent ones, in your specific class.)
Obtaining information from another student during an examination.
Communicating information to another student during an examination.
Knowingly allowing another student to copy one’s work.
Offering another person’s work as one’s own, such as by copying or having someone else do the assignment.
Taking an examination for another student or having someone take an examination for oneself.
Sharing answers for a take-home examination unless specifically authorized by the instructor.
Using unauthorized material during an examination.
Altering a graded examination or assignment and returning it for additional credit.
Having another person or a company do the research and/or writing of an assigned paper or report.
Misreporting or altering the data in laboratory or research projects.
Using a speech, essay, discussion board posting, course assignment, report, project or paper done for one class in another class unless specifically authorized by the instructors.
Presenting another person’s work as one’s own: copying a speech, essay, report, discussion board posting, project or paper from another person or from other sources.
Using outside sources (books, or other written sources) without giving proper credit (by naming the source and putting any exact words in quotation marks).

Sample syllabus statement (short):

Academic Integrity is an important part of maintaining a healthy and equitable learning environment. Golden West College has the responsibility of ensuring that grades are truly indicative of the student’s learned knowledge as exhibited in the classroom and through their coursework. Faculty and students share responsibility for ensuring that academic integrity in our classes. Coast Community College District students are to refrain from engaging in academic dishonesty. The Coast Community College District’s Student Code of Conduct Administrative Procedures (AP 5500) apply to all students whose conduct violates academic integrity.

When a student violates academic integrity policies, the student will be given, at a minimum, an oral or written reprimand. Depending on the nature of the violation, a student may be given a reduced score or an “F” on the assignment and face further punishment by the school. All violations that result in a reduced grade will be reported to the College Disciplinary Officer or their designee. Once a report is filed, all procedures as outlined in AP 5500 will be followed. Students will be contacted and informed of any further disciplinary actions that may be taken as well as the processes for appealing the academic integrity violation and its punishment.

(Be sure the list includes the common ways students might violate policies, especially the inadvertent ones, in your specific class.)