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Academic Integrity

The most common but not the only forms of academic dishonesty are cheating on examinations and plagiarism, which is the appropriation of the words or ideas of another person, whether taken from print or electronic media, which are then passed off as one's own.

When academic dishonesty is suspected, the instructor will inform the student of his suspicions and the student's rights to:

  • Receive any charges in writing;

  • Remain silent without assumption of guilt;

  • Receive from the instructor a copy of the Academic Integrity Statement; and

  • Be advised of the instructor's intended sanction. The instructor and student may resolve the situation, either by agreeing that the suspicions are unfounded or agreeing upon a sanction. Any sanction agreed upon at this point must be reported, together with the charges, to the department chair and to the Office of Graduate Studies. The instructor must report these facts in writing. If no agreement is reached between the student and the instructor, the instructor must report in writing his intended sanction to the department chair and to the student as soon as possible. Then:

  • The student may appeal in writing to the department chair within three weeks of receiving notice of the intended sanction. If the chair is the instructor in question, the senior member of the department's Personnel and Budget Committee will act for the chair.

  • The chair will appoint a committee of three Lehman faculty members from his/her department to adjudicate the matter within three weeks by majority vote.

  • The Committee will send a written notification of its decision to the department chair, the student, the instructor, and the Office of Graduate Studies.

  • Either the instructor or the student has the right, within three weeks of receipt of notification, to appeal the department decision in writing to the Senate Committee on Graduate Studies. The decision of this committee is final. No further appeals are permitted. The committee will notify the department chair, the student, the instructor, and the Office of Graduate Studies of its decision. If any part of the three-week period falls outside the regular semester, the first three weeks of the next regular semester shall apply.

  • The Office of Graduate Studies will keep all records of such proceedings on file until the student's graduation, at which time the records will be destroyed.

If the charge of academic dishonesty is upheld, disciplinary penalties may be recommended by the Vice President of Student Affairs to the hearing panel composed of members of the Faculty-Student Disciplinary Committee, pursuant to the due process provisions of the Board of Trustees' Bylaws (Article 15.3). Such penalties, which may be imposed only through the Bylaws process, include but are not limited to: 1) suspension from the College or 2) expulsion from the College.