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Academic Honesty

Membership in the AAMU learning community imposes upon the student a variety of commitments, obligations and responsibilities. It is the policy of AAMU to impose sanctions on students who misrepresent their academic work. These sanctions will be selected by appropriate classroom instructors or other designated persons consistent with the seriousness of the violation and related considerations.

Examples of academic dishonesty include but are not limited to:

  1. Plagiarism, taking someone else’s intellectual work and presenting it as one’s own (which covers published and unpublished sources).
    Using another’s term paper as one’s own; handing in a paper purchased from an individual or agency; submitting papers from living group, club or organization files; or using another’s computer program or document are all examples of plagiarism. Standards of attribution and acknowledgment of literary indebtedness are set by each discipline. Faculty are encouraged to include disciplinary or class-specific definitions in course syllabi. Students should consult with their department or with recognized handbooks in their field if in doubt.

  2. Cheating is unacceptable in any form.
    Examples include consultation of books, library materials or notes during tests without the instructor’s permission; use of crib sheets or hidden notes; intentional observation of another student’s test; receipt of a copy of an exam or questions or answers from an exam to be given or in progress; substitution of another person for the student on an exam or another graded activity; deliberate falsification of lab results; submission of falsified data; alteration of exams or other academic exercises; and collaboration on projects where collaboration is forbidden.

  3. Falsification, forgery or alteration of any documents pertaining to assignments and examinations.

  4. Students who (cooperate or in other ways promote) participate in promoting cheating or plagiarism by others (or who take credit for the work of others) will also be in violation of this policy.

    Students participating in any violation of this policy must accept the consequences of their actions. Classroom instructors and/or university review/appeals committees and administrators will assess the sanctions for violation of this policy. The seriousness of the violation will dictate the severity of the sanction imposed.

Academic sanctions may include but not be limited to any of the following:

  • verbal or written warning
  • lowering of grade for assignment/activity
  • lowering of term grade
  • failure of class assignment

Administrative sanctions may include but not be limited to either of the following:

  • suspension from the University
  • dismissal from the University