AUC Academic Integrity Sanctions Matrix: The Pilot

By: Martina Muawad
@martinamichelcx

Ensuring academic integrity has been an ongoing issue for many universities and AUC is not excluded. 

Acts of academic integrity violations have been known for decades, but the past few semesters have seen a drastic increase in reports of those violations. This however, does not necessarily indicate an increase in violations but an increase in reporting violations. 

According to a graph provided to The Caravan by Aziza Ellozy, Associate Provost for Transformative Learning and Teaching, Fall 21 saw 115 reported cases, of which 81 were plagiarism cases, 20 cheating cases and 14 other academic integrity violations.

This is in comparison to a total of 181 reported cases in the semesters from Fall 20 until Summer 21, with 98 plagiarism cases, 63 cheating cases and 20 other academic integrity cases.This shows that in only one semester (Fall 21) the number of reported cases has almost reached the total of four consecutive semesters.

Ellozy explained to The Caravan that AUC has had an academic integrity program for the past 19 years, however, most students are not aware of the policies, processes and sanctions.

“We are taking academic integrity very seriously. We do not want AUC to be tainted with academic integrity violations,” Ellozy said.

Students are already seeing the advocacy for academic integrity everywhere. There is a mandatory ethics session that every freshman student must take and  after which they are quizzed.  

Ellozy informed The Caravan that the university has also implemented a self-paced online module about AUC’s Code of Ethics that freshmen and ELI students have to successfully complete within their first semester at AUC. At the end of every module, there is also an assessment to test students for comprehension and knowledge of the Code. Students, for the past two years, have been completing this mandatory activity. 

“Last semester alone we had 1114 students who have taken and successfully completed the module,” Ellozy added.

Students, faculty members, and staff are also advised to report any incidents of academic integrity violations they come across. Ellozy assured The Caravan that the reports are confidential and students/faculty have only to describe the incident along with uploading documentation and they do not necessarily have to disclose anything about themselves.

 The reporting form is available on the AUC academic integrity page. 

“I think academic integrity is extremely important. It’s a way of rewarding those that spend countless hours studying and putting in the work for their classes. There’s no cheat sheet or way to look up the answers when you’re working in the real world,” Lorelei Sanders, an International Business sophomore told The Caravan.

Although faculty has the autonomy to make grade-related sanctions on the incident of a student breaking integrity rules, AUC with the Academic Integrity Committee has released a sanctions matrix with violations levels that describe the imposed actions upon the incident.

“While things are slowly moving back to face-to-face, it is the responsibility of the professors, faculty, and department to enforce stricter or more creative ways of testing their students and reprimanding those that do cheat,” Sanders added.

There are 5 levels of violations with accompanying sanctions that range from a simple warning to an expulsion. The matrix, however, is in its pilot stage and it might be adjusted based on feedback from stakeholders at the end of this year, according to Ellozy. 

“The approach is not to be punished but to learn and to uphold the consequences of actions,” explained Ellozy.