Faculty Information onAcademic Integrity & Classroom Disruption
Recommended Syllabus Statement
Old Dominion University is committed to students' personal and academic success. In order to achieve this vision, students, faculty, and staff work together to create an environment that provides the best opportunity for academic inquiry and learning. All students must be honest and forthright in their academic studies. Your work in this course and classroom behavior must align with the expectations outlined in the Code of Student Conduct, which can be found at www.odu.edu/oscai. The following behaviors along with classroom disruptions violate this policy, corrupt the educational process, and will not be tolerated.
Cheating: Using unauthorized assistance, materials, study aids, or other information in any academic exercise.
Plagiarism: Using someone else's language, ideas, or other original material without acknowledging its source in any academic exercise.
Fabrication: Inventing, altering or falsifying any data, citation or information in any academic exercise.
Facilitation: Helping another student commit, or attempt to commit, any Academic Integrity violation, or failure to report suspected Academic Integrity violations to a faculty member.
Academic dishonesty will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct & Academic Integrity and may result in sanctions up to and including expulsion from the University.
Syllabus Statement--PDF Syllabus Statement-WordFaculty Resources
- To report an incident of academic misconduct, click on "Report an Academic Integrity Violation", which will direct you to more detailed information about reporting a violation. Please be advised that any materials submitted to our office will be made available to all involved students, mostly unredacted.
- To report any other incident of alleged student misconduct, including an instance of classroom disruption, click on "Report a Student Conduct Violation".
- To report any behaviors that may pose a threat to the University community's safety, please contact the Threat Education, Assistance & Management Team and visit: http://www.odu.edu/team/.
- To report concerns regarding student wellbeing, please visit http://www.odu.edu/life/support/student-outreach and choose "Submit Concerns Regarding Student Wellbeing".
- Please note that all incidents involving Academic Integrity must be reported to the Office of Student Conduct & Academic Integrity even if the matter is resolved by a voluntary resolution between the professor and student.
Classroom Disruption
- The primary responsibility for managing classroom conduct resides with faculty. Establishing clear and reasonable expectations for responsible conduct at the beginning of a semester (through classroom discussions and syllabus statements) can assist faculty members in preventing classroom disruptions.
- Students are required to comply with reasonable requests of University officials acting in the performance and scope of their duties. Therefore, a faculty member may direct a student to leave a class for the remainder of the class period if the student is exhibiting behaviors that substantially or materially disrupt teaching and/or learning. Should such instances occur, faculty should promptly send a memorandum describing the incident to the Office of Student Conduct & Academic Integrity so that the student may be considered for a referral through the conduct process. (It is recommended that asking a student to leave a class be a "last resort" and that less severe interventions be used first, such as: issuing a general word of caution to all students about appropriate classroom conduct; a private conversation with the student after class; or a gentle, but firm, statement asking the student to cease the disruptive behavior).
- Progressive discipline involves communicating advanced expectations, addressing misconduct promptly, and responding in ways that are proportionate to the offense. Therefore, faculty should discuss expectations early and often in their courses and in their syllabi. Misconduct should be addressed as it arises in order to address the behavior at the lowest necessary level. Allowing unacceptable behaviors to exist unchallenged may result in the repetition of misconduct, often with an escalated degree of severity and/or impact. Faculty and student interests are generally not served by such deferred confrontation, and the educational value of the student conduct process may be diminished when the misconduct is eventually referred to
the Student Conduct & Academic Integrity for resolution.
General Resources
Academic Integrity
- Syllabus Statement
- Academic Integrity Classroom Presentation
- Academic Integrity Classroom Handout 1
- Academic Integrity Classroom Handout 2
Classroom Disruption
- Classroom Disruption Handout
- Guidelines & Policy on Dealing with Disruptive Students (Faculty Handbook)
- Questions & Answers on Classroom Disruption
- Procedures for Student Suicidal & Emotionally Disruptive Behavior (Faculty Handbook)
- Select Resources for Faculty
Websites of Interest
Academic Integrity
- Faculty should assume all students do not share the same understanding of responsible academic conduct. It is strongly recommended that faculty refer students to appropriate resources and/or take time to educate students about citation methods toward the end of avoiding unintentional plagiarism. The Office of Student Conduct & Academic Integrity may be called upon to assist in this effort.
- Faculty are strongly encouraged to communicate clear expectations regarding if/when collaboration is permissible for in- and out-of-class work.
- Faculty who suspect a student may have engaged in an Academic Integrity Violation are strongly encouraged to consult with staff in the Office of Student Conduct & Academic Integrity (OSCAI) regarding the applicability of the Code of Student Conduct, potential courses of action, and guidance on imposing appropriate sanctions. A staff member in OSCAI can be reached by calling (757) 683-3431.
- Faculty should submit a referral to OSCAI within 10 business days of the alleged violation's discovery. Submitting written referrals is essential to the University's ability to address patterns of academic integrity violations, and to developmentally determine appropriate sanctions based on the totality of the student's record.
- No grade sanction should be assigned until the referral is finally resolved, including the process of considering the student's appeal, if any. Should the referral not be resolved prior to the end of the semester, a grade of "I" should be assigned. Faculty should allow the student to remain enrolled in their course and grade all other assignments as they normally would while the case is pending. Faculty will receive written notification of the final outcome of the case so that an appropriate grade may be assigned.
- A note regarding incidents involving graduate students: Faculty who suspect a graduate student may have violated one or more standards of Academic Integrity should consult with the Office of Student Conduct & Academic Integrity, as graduate students are normally reviewed for suspension or expulsion, even for a first Academic integrity violation.