At the heart of an academic community is the need for academic integrity. Individual academic development necessitates a serious approach to learning and an honest appraisal of one's performance to determine one's most effective and efficient scholarly effort. There must be an accurate evaluation of past efforts to ensure successful future study. Purposeful fraudulent representation in scholarship not only is harmful to the individual involved, but detrimental to the efforts and well-being of an academic community. Academic dishonesty is defined as any willful attempt to submit or represent scholarship which is not the honest effort of oneself.
Students accused of academic cheating have the right to due process under current case law.
Accordingly, faculty who feel that a student has cheated should report the incident to their Department Chairs who will work with the faculty member and the Dean's Office for prompt resolution of the accusation.