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Reporting Alleged Acts of Academic Misconduct

If an instructor believes a student has committed an act of academic misconduct, the instructor is to meet with the student, if possible, to discuss the matter. When it is not possible to meet with the student, the instructor is to contact the student by email. This meeting or email contact should be initiated as soon as possible after the instructor’s discovery of the act. The instructor is then to fill out the Academic Misconduct Notification Form (available to instructors via WebAdvisor). This form will generate a report that will be automatically transmitted via email to the student, the instructor, and either the instructor’s dean or a designee who is authorized to act on behalf of that dean. On this form, the instructor will:

  1. Indicate that a “warning” be issued to the student. This option is to be used to provide the student with a teaching moment and may or may not include a course penalty, according to the instructor’s discretion (see Section IV, “Penalty Classifications for Academic Misconduct,” below]. Under this option, the student will be required to undergo special educational instruction and assistance to help ensure that he or she avoids committing such acts again. This “warning only” option may be chosen in any of the following circumstances:
    • The affected assignment amounted to 5% or less of the total grade in the course.
    • An act of plagiarism occurred due to a technicality and was likely unintentional.
    • Mitigating circumstances suggest that the act of misconduct was not an overt attempt to gain an unfair advantage.

    If a student receives two warnings during his or her course of study at Jacksonville University, the student will be placed on a probationary watch list. Records of being on the probationary watch list will be expunged from the student’s academic file upon graduation, assuming no further acts of academic misconduct occur.

    Once the student has been placed on the probationary watch list, further incidents of academic misconduct may lead to suspension or expulsion.

  2. Indicate that a “citation for academic misconduct” be issued to the student. This option usually requires the student to undergo special educational instruction and assistance as well, but it also typically entails placing the student on a probationary watch list, unless the student has already received another such citation in the past.
    • Records of being on the probationary watch list will be expunged from the student’s academic file upon graduation, assuming no further acts of academic misconduct occur.
    • Once a student has been placed on the probationary watch list, further incidents of academic misconduct may lead to suspension or expulsion.

NOTE: If the course-level penalty assigned by the instructor is failure for the entire course, the instructor is to indicate, on the Academic Misconduct Notification Form, that the instructor’s dean is to direct the Registrar’s Office to create an “Academic Hold” which will prevent the student from withdrawing from the course in question (the student may still withdraw from other courses).