Academic Policies

Bellarmine University is an academic community. It exists for the sake of the advancement of knowledge; the pursuit of truth; the intellectual, ethical, and social development of students; and the general well being of society. All members of our community have an obligation to themselves, to their peers and to the institution to uphold the integrity of Bellarmine University. In the area of academic honesty, this means that one’s work should be one’s own and that the instructor’s evaluation should be based on the student’s own efforts and understanding. When the standards of academic honesty are breached, mutual trust is undermined, the ideals of personal responsibility and autonomy are violated, teaching and learning are severely compromised, and other goals of the academic community cannot be
realized.

Students and faculty must be fully aware of what constitutes academic dishonesty; claims of ignorance cannot be used to justify or rationalize dishonest acts. Academic dishonesty can take a number of forms, including but not limited to cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, aiding and abetting, multiple submissions, obtaining unfair advantage, and unauthorized access to academic or administrative systems or information. Definitions of each of these forms of academic dishonesty are provided in the Academic Honesty section of the most recent edition of the Student Handbook. The University follows the policies outlined below for detected acts of academic dishonesty

1. Initial sanctions for instances of academic dishonesty may be imposed by the instructor or the appropriate dean. The choice of penalty ranges from a minimum penalty of failing the assignment or test to failing the course itself. NOTE: My penalty will be failing the course.

2. Following initial sanctions, all cases of academic dishonesty will be reported by the faculty to the Provost of the University, who has the authority to determine a more stringent penalty for the reported act of academic dishonesty, depending, in part, on the student’s previous record of academic dishonesty. The student will be required to have a conference with the dean of his/her college, or the dean’s designee.

3. On the second offense during the course of a student’s academic career at Bellarmine University, as a minimum additional penalty, the Provost will immediately suspend the student for the semester in which the most recent offense took place.

4. On the third offense, the Provost will immediately dismiss the student from the University.