Faculty Senate voted to pass the new administrative policy regarding student cheating and plagiarism Monday.

The policy was tabled at January’s meeting because of confusion in the language of the policy.

“We did kind of clean up the appeals stuff,” said Robert Kairis, library director for regional campuses. “It’s kind of funny but the old policies, or the current policies, still say that student appeals have to go through this rigid sort of review, which doesn’t make sense. If the student is accused of plagiarism they should be able to appeal, regardless. So we cleaned up some of that language.”

The revised policy will affect all current and incoming students, both graduate and undergraduate, who are accused of cheating or plagiarizing.

Instructors will be able to fill out a form to decide what punishment a student caught cheating or plagiarizing should face, according to the policy. Instructors can choose to give a failing grade for the assignment, to fail the student in that course or now — for students who have no record of plagiarism — to send that student to Plagiarism School.

Plagiarism School, as explained in the policy, is a punishment for instances that instructors feel the student did not intentionally plagiarize. The Plagiarism School will be run through the University Library and will consist of remedial classes on acceptable ways to document research.

“Plagiarism School has a ring to it. I kind of like it,” Senate Chair Mack Hassler said during the meeting.

The policy will also create an Academic Hearing Board that is designed to hold hearings and make decisions on cases of plagiarism. The board will have three student members and three faculty members appointed by Undergraduate or Graduate Student Government and Faculty Senate, respectively.

Faculty Senate passed the policy unanimously.

Contact Britni Williams at [email protected].