Responding to Academic Misconduct

All students in CLAS are expected to abide by the CLAS Code of Academic Honesty, available on the For Students section of the CLAS website (PDF version).

Please share this Code with your students and talk with them about your expectations concerning their work. A reminder about academic integrity especially before due dates or exams, can encourage students to think about their actions, thus lessening academic misconduct. Students appreciate knowing that all members in a class are respected and treated equally and that none are given the opportunity to have an unfair advantage over others. Best practices concerning exams and papers should be followed to help create this sense of fairness. Many instructors find it helpful to discuss these issues during class and before major due dates.

Please use this form to report academic misconduct: online reporting form.

If you have questions about academic misconduct or would like to consult on a specific case, please contact Amy Korthank.

Importance of Reporting Misconduct

Each UI undergraduate college tracks offenses on a joint tracking system, and these reports are shared across colleges, with sterner consequences for repeat offenders. For example, if a CLAS student commits academic misconduct in a Business course, CLAS is notified and thus is able to apply collegiate-level sanctions, regardless of administrative home of the course.

In order to for the College to contact and educate students within CLAS and at other UI undergraduate colleges, instructors must consistently report these incidents. Unreported incidents lead to repeat offenses, with the integrity of the classroom questioned by students.

Procedures for Reporting Academic Misconduct to the College

• Inform the student of the concern in an email at the uiowa.edu account, asking the student to discuss the situation. Here are optional guidelines for the email.
• Whenever possible, discuss the situation with the student in person, educating the student on the harm misconduct does to the integrity of the classroom, to fellow students, and to the student him or herself. It can also be helpful to explain how academic misconduct violates the trust an instructor has in students and the shared responsibilities inherent in the educational process.
• If the student does not respond to an email query or does not choose to meet with the instructor, the instructor may proceed with reporting the incident. (Note: TA's should report academic misconduct to the course supervisor who will take further action.)
• Next, send a report via the online reporting form describing the academic misconduct and the action taken; attach documentation to support the claim. The College carefully considers an instructor's recommendations about a collegiate sanction since the instructor is often aware of circumstances or details not always apparent in the report. At the same time, the College must make sure students are treated consistently.

Grading Sanctions Assigned by the Instructor

• In the case of academic fraud, an instructor may fail the assignment showing evidence of academic misconduct or may assign a lower grade than otherwise would have been given. The instructor may also decide to request a revision of the work in question and may accept the revision for a grade, as warranted.
• Instructors may not fail the student for an entire class because of academic misconduct. (In many cases, the student will earn a low grade for the course based on the overall quality of work.)  If special circumstances exist and an instructor strongly believes that a student should be failed for the entire course because of academic misconduct, the instructor should consult on the matter first with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Curriculum, Dr. Helena Dettmer (335-2633).
• Reporting the student to the College is also considered a sanction assigned by the instructor.

Sanctions Applied by the College

After the College has reviewed the report and the evidence submitted and finds that misconduct has occurred, the following sanctions are applied by the College.

• For a first offense: The student will be required to enroll in an academic integrity seminar and will be warned about the consequences of repeat offenses. The seminar includes close readings, requires short essays answers, and takes around 18-20 hours to complete. The student is charged $100 for the course and the student's registration is be held until the course is completed. The fee is not included in the UI tuition and is paid separately online before enrollment. A notation concerning academic misconduct does not appear on the transcript.
• For a second offense: The student is placed on disciplinary probation and is suspended. The student is not be allowed to register at the University of Iowa and the offense is noted on the student record during the time of suspension, with the notation reading, Not permitted to Register: Academic Misconduct. Suspensions generally last for two regular academic semesters. At the end of the suspension, the student may return to the University of Iowa and the notation is removed from the transcript.
• For a third offense:  The student is expelled. Once expulsion occurs, the offense is recorded on the student's permanent record/transcript as follows: Not permitted to Register: Academic Misconduct. If expelled, the student may not return to the University of Iowa.

CLAS will report the action taken to the student, to the instructor, and to other appropriate members of the UI community.

Note: Academic misconduct can involve many gray areas and borderline situations. In these cases, the College might combine or change the sanctions listed above so that they better fit the situation. The College also takes into account the instructor's recommendations about reducing or strengthening a collegiate sanction since the instructor is often aware of circumstances or details not always apparent in the report.

Student Appeals

A student is invited to meet with the College at any point in the process below.

• If a student believes that the finding of academic misconduct is in error, the student should first arrange a meeting with the instructor (or the supervisor) and then the head of the department or program to discuss the matter.
• If the student is dissatisfied with the result of these meetings, the student should make an appointment to discuss the matter with the College. The student may schedule an appointment with Amy Korthank.
• If not satisfied with the outcome of the above meeting, the student may appeal the decision formally in writing to the CLAS Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Curriculum. Dr. Helena Dettmer. This formal appeal must be received within fourteen business days from the date of the original decision made by College.
• After the Associate Dean has made a decision on the matter and if the student remains dissatisfied with the outcome, the student may appeal that decision to the Committee to Resolve Student Grievances. The Associate Dean must receive this request to appeal to the Committee within fourteen business days of the previous appeal decision made by the College.
• If the student is not satisfied with these results, he or she may request in writing a review of the situation by the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education.

For more information, please see the For Student web site pages and the CLAS Code of Academic Honesty.