Information regarding Academic Integrity can be found in the GVSU Undergraduate and Graduate Catalog or in the Student Code (see section 4). Report all incidents of academic dishonesty. 

Questions can be directed to Aaron Klein Haight, Assistant Dean of Students, at 616-331- 3585 or by [email protected]

Report Academic Dishonesty Incident

The principles of academic honesty and integrity are fundamental to a community of scholars. The University expects that students will not engage in acts of academic dishonesty in curricular and non-curricular academic activities. Engaging in academic dishonesty compromises the integrity of university grades, and scholarship and research.

Academic dishonesty is defined as actions or behaviors that misrepresent one’s contributions to or the results of any scholarly product submitted for credit, evaluation, or dissemination. This definition includes, but is not limited to, fabrication, falsification, cheating, and plagiarism. Terms are defined as the following:

• Fabrication is defined as making up data or results and recording or reporting them.
• Falsification is defined as manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that research is not accurately represented in the research record.
• Cheating is defined as attempting to use materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise that have not been allowed by the instructor.
• Plagiarism is defined as offering the work of someone else as one’s own. The language or ideas taken from another may range from isolated formulas, sentences, or paragraphs to entire articles copied from books, periodicals, speeches or the writings of other students.

Academic dishonesty compromises the integrity of grades, meaning that all academic work should be done by the student to whom it is assigned without unauthorized aid.

Students will comply with the following rules, when engaging in coursework:

• No student shall knowingly, without authorization, procure, provide or accept any materials, which contain questions or answers to any examination or assignment.
• No student shall, without authorization, complete, in part or in total, any examination or assignment for another person.
• No student shall, without authorization, allow any examination or assignment to be completed, in part or in total, by another person.
• No student shall knowingly plagiarize or copy the work of another person and submit it as their own.
• No student shall submit work that has been previously graded, or is being submitted concurrently to more than one course, without authorization from the instructor(s) of the class(es) to which the student wishes to submit it.

When the instructor feels that action beyond a a failing course grade is warranted, the instructor will report the incident at www.gvsu.edu/conduct and request additional action via the University Conduct Process. When the alleged violation is related to the Academic Honesty - Integrity of Scholarships and Grades, the Hearing Body shall be composed of faculty members.

It is the instructor’s responsibility to establish a classroom atmosphere that fosters academic honesty on the part of the students. If any instance of academic dishonesty is discovered by an instructor, they will notify the student and discuss the incident. After discussing the instance with the student, the instructor will make a decision. Depending on the instructor’s judgment of the particular case, they may do nothing, impose additional course requirements, ask the student to repeat the work in question, or give a failing grade for the assignment, examination or the entire course. Any time an instructor addresses a violation of Academic Honesty with a failing grade on an assignment or in a course, they must report the incident at www.gvsu.edu/conduct. Other incidents may be reported for tracking purposes. Reporting the incident will notify the Department Chair, the Dean of Students, and the Dean(s) of the Instructional Colleges. Reporting the incident does not automatically initiate addition action, but keeps record of the incident. Students may utilize the Academic Grievance Process to appeal a faculty initiated decision.