/Institutions/Mount-Vernon-Nazarene-University/json/2024-2025/GPS-Catalog-2024-2025-local.json

/Institutions/Mount-Vernon-Nazarene-University/json/2024-2025/GPS-Catalog-2024-2025.json

Graduate and Professional Studies Catalog 2024-2025 > School of Graduate and Professional Studies > Academic Regulations and Procedures > Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Mount Vernon Nazarene University encourages personal integrity and maturity in its students. To that end, the University adheres to the principle of unquestioned honesty in its expectations of students, faculty, and staff. This standard should govern relationships in the online classroom. As a Christian community, faculty, staff, and students have a moral and ethical responsibility to uphold the principle of unquestioned honesty and to refrain from any activity or behavior that would suggest academic dishonesty and lack of personal integrity.

Dishonesty is defined as misrepresentation of facts with the motive to slant consequences in one's favor, minimize one's workload, or make untruthful claims to benefit oneself or others. Dishonesty may be unintentional or subconscious, stemming from insensitivity or immaturity. While the examples of dishonesty described in the current MVNU Catalog are related to academic integrity, they also include (among other things) attendance fraud, cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication.

While recent developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology bring many exciting opportunities, this technology also poses significant challenges for higher education. As a result, MVNU has revised its Academic Integrity policy. The use of any AI language processing tool(s) to produce or modify any aspect of coursework a student is expected to complete, unless clearly permitted in assignment guidelines, is prohibited and is a form of plagiarism according to MVNU’s Academic Integrity policies. In response to the challenges posed by AI, several AI detection tools have emerged. The MVNU-authorized AI detection tool will be used to detect coursework that is AI generated.

ATTENDANCE FRAUD

The University strives to provide curricular and spiritual opportunities for students to develop and mature. In this process it is essential for the student to be in attendance and to report that attendance honestly. Attendance fraud is misrepresentation of one’s attendance at a required campus event. Specifically, attendance fraud includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. writing another student’s name on an attendance sheet;
2. asking or permitting another student to write one’s own name on an attendance sheet;
3. writing one’s own name on an attendance sheet and leaving the activity before it is formally dismissed;
4. making a false or misleading statement to an instructor as an excuse for missing class;
5. altering or forging a document submitted to an instructor from a physician, nurse, or university official as an excuse for missing class; or
6. providing false information about the amount of time worked on a time record.

CHEATING

Cheating is the representation of someone else’s work as one’s own. In each course, the student is responsible for asking the faculty member which activities are authorized and permitted. Policies must be stated in the course syllabus. Cheating includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. unauthorized entry to a faculty or secretarial office in search for examination-related material;
2. unauthorized use of materials from a faculty or secretarial office to prepare for an examination;
3. unauthorized use of a previously given examination to prepare for a present exam;
4. discussing any part of an exam that has not yet been completed with any person who has already completed the exam;
5. presenting a fraudulent excuse to seek permission to take an exam at a different time than the scheduled time, or submit work at a different time than due;
6. unauthorized possession of a copy of an exam;
7. giving assistance to or receiving assistance from another student during an exam;
8. looking at or attempting to look at another student’s paper during an exam;
9. unauthorized use of published materials, notes, or "cheat sheets" during an exam;
10. unauthorized use of computing devices during an exam;
11. unauthorized use of tape recorders or other electronic devices during an exam;
12. unauthorized storage of information on an electronic calculator, computer or other media for use during an exam;
13. unauthorized use of pre-programmed computers or calculators during an exam;
14. unauthorized collaborating with or consulting another person to complete a project or homework assignment;
15. accessing an instructor's edition of a textbook or a test bank; or
16. the use of any electronic communication during an examination.

PLAGIARISM

In the academic community, there is variation in how often and to what degree the sources of ideas need to be cited. Faculty members can provide guidelines within academic disciplines. When the work depends upon the contributions of others, students are expected to acknowledge their indebtedness to them.

Plagiarism is a special form of academic dishonesty that involves the failure to acknowledge the source of ideas or portray someone else's work as one's own. Academic integrity requires that a student acknowledge ideas and expressions borrowed from others. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the following:

1. looking at or copying another student’s work on an assignment (e.g., written work, term paper, workbook, etc.);
2. unauthorized accessing and/or copying another person’s computer file(s);
3. submitting written work obtained from commercial sources (e.g., on-line or Internet term papers) or submitting work based upon information from such sources;
4. submitting work prepared by another person whether for money or favor;
5. unacknowledged quotation of a published work; or
6. using any Artificial Intelligence (AI) language processing tool(s) to create coursework, unless clearly permitted in assignment guidelines (the MVNU-authorized AI detection tool will be used to detect coursework that is AI generated).

LABORATORY FRAUD

Students who misrepresent their own work on laboratory projects commit laboratory fraud. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. submitting one’s laboratory project to an outside laboratory for analysis;
2. submitting one’s laboratory project to another student for analysis;
3. submitting a laboratory report of an experiment performed by other persons;
4. misrepresenting the date or amount of time spent on an experiment or other laboratory activities;
5. submitting a copy of another person’s computer program or project as one’s own work; or
6. submitting a copy of a commercially available computer program as one’s own work.

FABRICATION

Students who commit academic fraud fabricate fictitious data for experiments and report them as real. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. submitting a report on an experiment or project that was not actually performed;
2. listing works that were not actually consulted in a bibliography; or
3. listing fictitious works in a bibliography.

ELECTRONIC MEDIA FRAUD

Computers and other electronic information technologies function as instruments to facilitate student learning. They can also be employed as means to bypass the discipline of personal learning and mastery, as well as other non-academic improprieties. Examples of electronic media fraud include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. use of digital cameras, cell phones or similar devices to capture, store and transmit part or whole examinations;
2. capturing another person's login and password information to gain unauthorized access;
3. unauthorized access to and altering of student grade information stored on the University's learning management system (Moodle), servers and/or computers;
4. unauthorized capture and distribution (e.g., peer-to-peer file sharing) of copyrighted materials, including music, videos, publisher text banks, and/or electronic textbooks, without permission of the publisher.
5. sending and/or accessing electronic messages or digital images of course-related materials during examinations;
6. malicious attacks on the University's computer system and/or network;
7. unauthorized or illegal data mining of University-owned records.
8. using electronic technology to misrepresent one's identity to others (i.e., electronic aliases); or
9. circumventing University network security systems to gain unauthorized access (e.g. hacking) to information records and/or websites.

POLICIES

MVNU endeavors to communicate clearly its positive expectations about the principle of academic integrity and to educate its members, and handle academic integrity violations in a fair and consistent manner.

1. The penalty for any first offense shall be a zero on that particular assignment. No makeup examination or extra credit project will be permitted. If a faculty member uses a lowest grade dropped policy, then the zero may not count as the lowest grade to be dropped.
2. The penalty for any second offense shall be failure of the applicable course with an assigned grade of X.
3. The penalty for any third offense shall be failure of the applicable course and immediate dismissal from MVNU. All other courses attended but not completed shall have the W (Withdrawal) grade administered.
4. More severe penalties may be levied (a) when the integrity offense is an organized group action, (b) when criminal actions result (e.g., unauthorized use of a master key or breaking and entering), or (c) when the action involves more than one course. MVNU reserves the right to prosecute alleged criminal offenses as well as involve its Human Resources and/or Student Life personnel in the investigation and discipline. In egregious cases, the action may be initiated by the Academic Affairs Office, Vice President for Academic Affairs, or VPAA's designee.
5. The rights of students, as outlined in the Student Handbook, will be upheld, except that the procedures in this section shall apply in academic integrity matters.
6. In cases of dismissal, the "Academic Dismissal for <insert applicable term>" designation shall be entered on the student’s transcript.
7. Schools and/or faculty may stipulate more stringent policies in the school policy and/or syllabi. The academic integrity decision (including any appeals) will be made on the basis of the more stringent policy.
8. In the case of dismissal, the dismissal will last no fewer than 180 days. A student may petition for readmission after the dismissal period. If re-admission is granted, the enrollment status shall be academic probation. If no further incidences occur during the probationary period, then the status will be changed to "good standing" at the conclusion of the probationary period, provided other academic standards for GPS are also met.
9. The Assistant to the Associate Vice President for Academic Administration (AVPAA) is responsible for maintaining all records of academic integrity decisions.
10. The maximum penalty that a school dean or faculty member can determine is failure for the course. Dismissal from the University is a decision that can only be made by the Academic Affairs Office.

PROCEDURES

1. In alleged instances of academic dishonesty, the instructor shall address the issue with the student and, if necessary, investigate the incident. The instructor will determine the appropriate action to take based on the above policies and course syllabus and then report the matter to the school dean and Associate Vice President for Academic Administration (AVPAA) at Academic.Affairs@mvnu.edu. The instructor may consult the department chair (traditional students) or program coordinator (GPS students), school dean, and AVPAA during the investigation and decision process. If the matter is resolved at this level, the process will end when the Academic Integrity Incident Report is filed with the AVPAA (the school dean will also receive a copy of the report).
2. The student has the right to appeal the resolution to the school dean. The appeal must be made in writing within five (5) working days of the time the student has been notified in writing of the decision. The appeal must include all correspondence and evidence related to all previous actions and appeals. The school dean will respond in writing to the appeal within five (5) working days of receipt of the appeal.
3. The dean’s decision may be appealed only on procedural grounds (e.g. the stated process was not followed, relevant evidence was not considered, etc.). Such an appeal must be filed in writing with the AVPAA within five (5) working days of the time the student has been notified in writing of the decision. The appeal must include all correspondence and evidence related to all previous actions and appeals.
4. The AVPAA will convene the Academic Integrity Review Board to administer the appeal. This board is comprised of five members, all of whom are appointed by the Vice President for Academic Affairs, in consultation with the Academic Leadership Team. Three members will be full-time faculty and two members will be junior or senior students. The AVPAA will chair the board but will only vote in the case of a tie. The AVPAA is responsible for insuring that the matter has been handled fairly and that a written report of the Board's decision is sent to the instructor, department chair (traditional students) or program coordinator (GPS students), school dean, student, and the Academic Affairs Office. The Board's decision is final and cannot be appealed.