Education requires integrity and respect for HutchCC's institutional values. HutchCC students are required to maintain honesty through a "responsible acquisition, discovery, and application of knowledge" in all academic pursuits. Preserving and upholding academic honesty is the responsibility of HutchCC students, faculty, administrators and staff.

I. Student Responsibilities

All HutchCC students are required to:

• Submit all work in all courses without cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, dissimulation, forgery, sabotage, or academic dishonesty as defined below.
• Provide all academic records such as transcripts and test scores that are free of forgery.
• Refrain from participating in the academic dishonesty of any person.
• Use only authorized notes and student aids.
• Use technology appropriately, including refraining from submitting AI (Artificial Intelligence)-generated work without express written consent from your instructor.
• Protect the security of passwords/login/privacy/electronic files, and maintain sole individual access for any online course information.

II. Definition of Academic Dishonesty

• Academic dishonesty is any intentional act, or attempted act, of cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, dissimulation, forgery, or sabotage in academic work.
• Cheating includes using unauthorized materials of any kind, whether hard copies, online, or electronic, such as unapproved study aids in any academic work, copying another student's work, using an unauthorized "cheat sheet" or device, or purchasing or acquiring an essay online or from another student.
• Fabrication is the invention or falsification of any information or citation in any academic work, such as making up a source, providing an incorrect citation, or misquoting a source.
• Plagiarism is the representation of words, ideas and other works that are not the student's own as being original to the student. A non-inclusive list of examples includes work completed by someone else, work generated by an external entity (such as AI), omitting a citation for work used from another source, or borrowing the sequence of ideas, arrangement of material, and/or pattern of thought of work not produced by the student, even though it may be expressed in the student's own words.
• Dissimulation is the obscuring of a student's own actions with the intention of deceiving others in any academic work, such as fabricating excuses for absences or missed assignments, or feigning attendance.
• Forgery of academic documents is the unauthorized altering, falsification, misrepresentation, or construction of any academic document, such as changing transcripts, changing grades on papers or on exams which have been returned, forging signatures, manipulating a digital file of academic work, or plagiarizing a translation.
• Sabotage is any obstruction or attempted obstruction of the academic work of another student, such as impersonating another student, stealing or ruining another student's academic work.
• Aiding and abetting academic dishonesty is considered as knowingly facilitating any act defined above.
• Academic honesty violations can also include the omission or falsification of any information on an application for any HutchCC academic program.

III. Sanctions for Academic Dishonesty

Students who violate the Academic Honesty Policy may be subject to academic or administrative consequences.

Instructor Sanctions for Violation:

Students suspected of violating the Academic Honesty Policy may be charged in writing by their instructor and any of the following may apply:

• Assign Avoiding Plagiarism Bridge Module
• Receiving written warning that could lead to more severe sanction if a second offense occurs
• Revising the assignment/work in question for partial credit
• Voiding work in question without opportunity for make-up
• Reducing the grade for work in question
• Lowering the final course grade
• Failing the work in question

Institutional Sanctions for Violation:

Students charged with academic dishonesty, particularly in instances of repeated violations, may further be subjected to an investigation and any of the following may apply:

• Instructor recommendation to the Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) to dismiss the student from the course in which the dishonesty occurs
• Instructor recommendation to the VPAA to dismiss student from the course in which the dishonesty occurs with a grade of 'F." Student will not be allowed to take a 'W' for the course
• Instructor recommendation to the VPAA that the student be suspended and/or dismissed from the program
• Student barred from course/program for a set period of time or permanently
• May be recommended by the instructor (after documented repeated offenses) to the VPAA that the student be placed on probation, suspended and/or dismissed from the institution.

IV. Procedure

• Instructor will communicate in writing via the student's HutchCC email account and/or LearningZone email account to the student suspected of violating the Academic Honesty Policy.  That communication may include sanction(s). Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation Form.
• For each violation, the instructor will submit a completed Academic Honesty Violation Form to the Department Chair. Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation form.
• Should the instructor choose to pursue institutional sanctions, the instructor shall notify the student in writing via the student's HutchCC email account.  Instructor shall also submit a completed Academic Honesty Violation Form and all prior completed forms regarding said student to the Department Chair and the office of the VPAA with recommendation to proceed with specific Institutional Sanctions. Department Chair will notify the student's academic advisor upon receipt of the Academic Honesty Violation Form.
• The decision of the VPAA on Institutional Sanction is final. The VPAA will notify the student's academic advisor of any institutional sanctions.

V. Due Process Rights

Students charged with violations of academic honesty have the right of appeal and are assured of due process through the Academic Honesty Appeal process.

Academic Honesty Appeal Process

I. Due Process Rights: Students charged with violations of academic honesty have the right of appeal and are assured of due process through the Academic Honesty Appeal process.

• If an instructor has recommended course or program dismissal, the student may continue in coursework (providing there are no threatening or security behavioral issues) until appeal processes are concluded. However, if an issue has been documented at a partnership location (e.g., clinical sites, secondary institutions, correctional or military facilities), then the student is no longer eligible to continue participation in internships, apprenticeships, and/or clinical-based practice. For clinical sites, this sanction is immediate.

II. Process

If the student disagrees with the charge of a violation of academic honesty, the student has the right to due process as described in the Academic Honesty Appeal process below:

• If the matter is not resolved upon communicating with the instructor about the violation, the student shall, within five business days of the issuance of the written notice of violation, submit a completed Academic Honesty Appeal Form and supporting documentation to the appropriate department chairperson to initiate an Academic Honesty Appeal.
• Within two business days of receiving the student's completed Academic Honesty Appeal Form, the Department Chair and VPAA will review and the VPAA will render a decision.
• Within two business days, a response will be sent to the student's HutchCC email address. The VPAA's decision is final.