HIU's Academic Integrity Policy
Because Hope International University seeks to develop mature Christian leaders and scholars, the university is committed to the principle of academic integrity. Consequently, all forms of dishonesty, including plagiarism or cheating in any form, are wrong, undermine learning, and are contrary to the University’s educational objectives and the student’s best interests. The primary rule of academic integrity is that each member of the university community will do one’s own work, executed to the best of one’s own ability, exclusively for the assignment for which it is presented or submitted.
Plagiarism is “stealing” the unique ideas or the wording of another (whether from classmates, publications, or information retrieved from the internet) and then presenting those products as one’s own. Examples of plagiarism include cheating on examinations; copying others’ work; cutting and pasting from internet sources; using the words or ideas or sequences of argumentation presented or published by others without proper citation; and purchasing, renting, borrowing, or otherwise appropriating the research, projects, or assignments of others, and presenting them as one’s own work. Without permission from the instructor for which coursework is prepared, “self-plagiarism” is also a violation of academic integrity because a student has in such cases submitted previous work done for another class and assignment and represented it as original work prepared exclusively for an assignment in the class for which it is submitted.
It is also an egregious violation of academic integrity for students to offer for sale (or without cost) directly to other students, or through a “middleman,” papers, examinations, quizzes, or other academic products for submission by the recipient. Such violations are grounds for academic dismissal.
Violations of academic integrity result in the following consequences:
1. Zero (0) credit for the violated assignment. This is the standard penalty for a first violation.
2. Zero (0) credit (“F”) for the course in which the violation takes place. This is the standard penalty for a second violation, whether committed in the same course as the first violation or in a different, concurrently enrolled course, or in a course in a subsequent term of study.
3. Academic dismissal from the university. This is the standard penalty for a third violation, whether committed in the same course as the first violation or in a different, concurrently enrolled course, or in a course in a subsequent term of study.
Academic Integrity Accountability Procedure
1. An instructor who suspects plagiarism/cheating, should verify and document the violation of academic integrity (for written work or assignments submitted, this may entail the use of tools such as Turnitin, including Turnitin’s AI detector, or some other proven AI detector. It is now HIU policy for all written assignments to be submitted through Turnitin). A violation must be demonstrable through evidence that may be documented.
2. Once the instructor is convinced that plagiarism or other violation of academic integrity (such as cheating on quizzes or exams) has indeed occurred, the instructor should have a timely “accountability conversation” with the offending student for the following reasons:
a. To ensure that the student understands what they did and why it is a violation of academic integrity, and to encourage the student to collaborate in their recovery from this violation in order to continue toward earning their degree.
b. To provide the student with the opportunity to “own” what they did, and hopefully to express remorse or contrition.
c. To offer students for whom it is a first plagiarism violation the option of attending Plagiarism Prevention School (immediate/timely, monitored, and documented meeting with Professor Ben Garcia) coupled with the option of re-writing and re-submitting the assignment for a maximum 70% of possible credit. Nevertheless, in this case the 1st violation report will remain in the archive, and a subsequent violation will still be counted as a 2nd violation. The VPAA’s Office maintains an archive of all reported violations of academic integrity and can verify if the case is a first violation.
When instructors consider the “Plagiarism Prevention School” option, this should be based on minor negligence, minor carelessness, or reasonable doubt that the student really doesn’t fully understand plagiarism. It should not be exercised in cases that are clearly (or by all appearances) willfully calculated, deceitful, and dishonest.
3. Once the instructor is convinced that plagiarism or other violation of academic integrity (such as cheating on quizzes or exams) has indeed occurred, and once the instructor has completed a timely “accountability conversation” with the student, the incident must be reported, accompanied by the appropriate documentation, to:
a. The Dean of the College that owns the course in which the violation occurred.
b. The Office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
The VPAA Office will, in turn, report the violation to the Dean of the College in which the student is enrolled.
The incident report must include a brief description of the violation, documentation of the violation, and a brief summary of the outcome for the student and the instructor’s conversation with the student.
4. If this is a repeat violation – a second or third violation – further disciplinary actions will be managed by the Dean of the College in which the student is enrolled, not by the instructor in whose class the violation occurred. While Deans maintain discretion in how consequences play out, they should not stray too far from the written policy.
Official communication to the student regarding the violation and its consequences will be issued by the Dean of the College in which the student is enrolled. Copies will be sent to the student’s academic advisor, the instructor in whose class the violation occurred, and to the Dean of the College who owns that class.