Academic Honesty Policy

Itawamba Community College is committed to academic honesty and scholarly integrity.  Cheating and plagiarism erode the educational and social values of the College and deprive students of knowledge, skills, and character traits valued in the community.

Cheating is the act of deception by which a student misleadingly demonstrates that he/she has mastered information or skills on an academic exercise.  Cheating includes but is not necessarily limited to:

• submitting work that is not the student's own, including papers, assignments or exams
• supplying or receiving in any way unauthorized information for the preparation of a test, exam, or assignment
• communicating during a test/exam with the intent of copying from or supplying information to another student
• taking a test/exam with the aid of cheat sheets, notes, or other unauthorized assistance
• improperly using technology including copying or receiving information from others, accessing computer files without authority, and altering records
• assisting any person committing an act of academic dishonesty.

Plagiarism is the representation of previously written, published, or creative work as one's own.  Examples include, but are not limited to:

• representing any scholarly work of others; such as musical compositions, computer programs, visual arts; as one's own
• offering as one's own work the words, ideas, or arguments of other persons without appropriate credit
• falsifying bibliographies.

Penalties and Procedures

Individual instructors are expected to uphold the standard of academic honesty and integrity at Itawamba Community College by consistent application of the Academic Honesty Policy.

First Offense at the College

The student will receive a "0" for the assignment, test, project, etc.   The student may not drop this grade.

The instructor will:

• arrange a conference with the student and advise the student of te allegations.
• inform the division chair and appropriate dean in writing of the allegations.

The dean will:

• review the Incident Report File housed in the office of the Vice-President of Instruction for record of previous incident(s) by the student.
• review the record of previous incident(s) and allegations with the instructor.
• arrange a conference with the student and instructor to review allegations.
• provide an Incident Report Form signed by the student with will be kept on file in the office of the Vice-President of Instruction.  The Incident Report Form will include penalty assigned, student consent to abided by the Academic Honesty Policy, further penalties to be assigned for additional infractions, and the appeals process.

The student may appeal the decision though the Student Grievance Procedure for Academic Matters, beginning at step three in the procedure.

Second Offense at the College

Student will receive an "F" for the course

Procedures:  Same as First Offense

Third Offense at the College

Student will be suspended from the college for two calendar years

Procedures: Same as First and Second Offenses.  The Vice-President of Instruction will be included in the conference with dean, instructor, and student.