Types of Sanctions
Boise State University’s Academic Integrity Program furnishes three essential types of academic misconduct sanctions in response to academic misconduct behavior:
- Instructor-assigned grade sanctions
- Academic Integrity Program’s Educational Sanctions
- Conduct Process Sanctions
Each type is detailed below.
Submitting an incident also creates a record that is retained for seven years to prevent that student’s repeated escalation of misconduct behavior. Section 10: Records fully describes the protection and limited disclosure of these records.
Additionally, students have the right to submit an appeal for review for any incident where they are found responsible.
Instructor Assessed-and-Assigned Grade Sanctions
Boise State policy recognizes instructors’ autonomy to determine the presence of and severity of the academic misconduct that students have engaged in within their courses, and the sanctions they might apply in response. These sanctions might range as follows:
- F in the course
- Reduced final grade in the course: Instructors might do this by informing a student that their final grade will be dropped by one whole letter or by setting a maximum grade that can be achieved following the incident.
- 0% on assignment or test
- Reduced score on assignment or test
- Revise/redo and resubmit work: Instructors might inform a student that they can either revise & resubmit the assignment by a given date or accept a 0% if they choose not to.
- Written warning only: Instructors are not required to issue a grade sanction in order to refer/ report an incident of academic misconduct to the Academic Integrity Program. All responsible findings of academic misconduct will be in the student’s conduct record as a result of a referral/ report.
- Other: Many instructors and departments may have more nuanced systems.
Final autonomous decision-making on grade sanctioning is the instructor’s. It is recommended that assigned grade sanctions align with an instructor’s syllabus.
Please note that instructors often report making their autonomous decision on grade sanctions based on:
- the instructor’s ability or inability to assess the student’s accomplishment of learning outcomes;
- the severity of the misconduct behavior;
- increasing fairness to other learners in the class who did not participate in misconduct, and/ or;
- the professional standards of the course’s discipline or field.
Instructors deliver their decision of responsibility and any grade sanctions to their student prior to or as they refer the incident to the Academic Integrity Program.
Instructors, programs, or colleges may also require other sanctions or processes based on their standards.
Academic Integrity Program’s Educational Sanctions
Please note that:
“As a tool, the Student Code of Conduct helps promote growth and learning as students interact with their environment and accept responsibility for decision-making. The Boise State University student conduct process educates students about their responsibilities as members of an academic community and imposes sanctions when student conduct puts the members of the community in jeopardy or when the University has a clear and distinct interest in addressing the student behavior.”
Our clear and distinct interest at the Academic Integrity Program is to invite students to re-invest in their own student-learning after a first incident of learning-preventive misconduct. This serves our institution’s primary purpose for existence: teaching & learning.
Online Academic Integrity Workshop
This workshop takes under an hour for students to complete and helps further familiarize them with their learner-responsibilities in the Student Code of Conduct (UP 2020). It is housed in Canvas, illustrates real-world scenarios, and reviews the three most common academic integrity violations at Boise State: plagiarism, cheating, and unauthorized collaboration.
Required Meeting with the Academic Integrity Program Director
After introductions, students have the opportunity to take accountability for their decisions because this can help the student prevent future incidents. Discussions can also include campus-resource and tutoring options, and supporting the student as they brainstorm their own solutions to challenges. Students will also learn about their responsibilities and rights through brief policy-review. Many student report that meeting one-on-one helps them feel that they belong at Boise State and that their own investment in their genuine learning matters.
Reflective Writing Assignments
After academic misconduct occurs, we ask students: what will your future choices be? One of our roles at the Academic Integrity Program is to invite students to reflect on how their behaviors and values do or do not yet serve our community of Shared Values, including academic excellence. Our goal is to offer intervention so students pause and choose productive future choices that will serve them in learning, life, and career.
Other
Occasionally, we will offer more tailored or varied educational sanctions to students.
You may preview educational sanctions at our “Online Workshops & Education” page.
Conduct Process Sanctions
Sanctioning Board & Conduct Board
Sometimes it is necessary for the community of Boise State’s learners as represented by the Sanctioning Board to reflect on a student’s readiness to continue in the Boise State learning community. Often, this may occur if a student is found responsible for more than one incident of academic misconduct, or if an incident is particularly severe, or if a student has been unresponsive to past opportunities to choose different, learning-promoting behaviors. Sanctioning Boards may consider sanctions of Conduct Probation for Duration of Education, Suspension, Expulsion, and/ or other tailored sanctions. Conduct Boards fulfill the same purpose for a wider range of behaviors. Further information on these processes can be found in the Student Code of Conduct.