Academic Honesty is a shared responsibility of the individual student and the College’s faculty and staff.

Coastline College’s reputation relies on the individual student’s commitment to academic honesty and the effective administration of academic misconduct issues by the College’s faculty and staff.

Coastline College faculty are responsible for ensuring that grades reflect the student’s learned knowledge as exhibited in the classroom and through their coursework. Student acts of academic misconduct disrupt the educational process, weaken the College’s reputation, and present challenges for our faculty to assess academic performance fairly and accurately.

While Coastline College faculty hold primary responsibility for ensuring that academic honesty is maintained in their classes, individual students share in this responsibility. Coastline students are to refrain from engaging in academic misconduct. The Coast Community College District’s Student Code of Conduct Administrative Procedures (AP 5500) applies to all students.

Procedures for Dealing with Academic Misconduct

Faculty Member Actions

Any Coastline faculty member who has evidence that a student has committed an act of academic misconduct, shall take one or more of the following disciplinary actions:

• Speak with the student about the incident.
• Issue an oral reprimand.
• Give the student an “F” grade, zero points, or a reduced number of points on all or part of a particular paper, project or examination; if the act of academic dishonesty results in a “F” grade or zero points being awarded to the student for that particular paper, project, or examination, and this result affects the student’s overall grade in the class, then the student shall be issued the proper grade, as affected by the specific “F” or zero grade, by the faculty member.

For all incidents of academic misconduct, the instructor will report the matter to the College's Disciplinary Officer (the Dean of Students) using the Maxient Reporting Form.

Actions by the College's Disciplinary Officer

Upon receipt of a report of academic misconduct, the College's Disciplinary Officer will send a letter to the student inviting them to present a response to the allegations of academic misconduct.

The sanctions imposed for an act of academic dishonesty depend on the severity of the incident. As a result, a student may be suspended from the College on a first offense or be recommended for expulsion by the CCCD Board of Trustees.

If, following the student’s return from suspension, the College's Disciplinary Officer receives further reports of academic misconduct, they will recommend the student be expelled from the District for a period of no less than three years.

The College's Disciplinary Officer shall keep the faculty member and appropriate Dean(s) reasonably informed of the status and outcome of the disciplinary process for incidents of academic misconduct.

Examples of Academic Misconduct

Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Taking an examination for another student or having someone else take an examination on your behalf.
• Altering a graded examination/assignment and submitting it for additional credit.
• Having another person or entity conduct research and/or write a report on your behalf.
• Stealing or attempting to steal an examination or answer key.
• Printing an online exam without the express authorization of the instructor.
• Stealing or attempting to change official academic records.
• Forging or altering grades.
• Collaborating with another student or students beyond what has been specifically approved by the instructor.
• Obtaining answers from another student before, during, or after an examination or assignment submission.
• Falsely reporting or claiming to have experienced technical difficulties with online instructional tests, quizzes, or assignments.
• Knowingly allowing another student to copy one’s work.
• Using unauthorized materials, such as notebooks, calculators, websites, or other items, without the instructor’s consent during an examination.
• Sharing answers for a take-home or online examination unless otherwise authorized by the instructor.
• Receiving help in creating a speech, essay, discussion board posting, course assignment, report, project or paper unless otherwise authorized by the instructor.
• Using a speech, essay, discussion board posting, course assignment, report, project or paper done for one class in another class unless specifically authorized by the instructors.
• Misreporting or altering the data in laboratory or research projects.
• Presenting another person’s work as one’s own: copying a speech, essay, report, discussion board posting, project or paper from another person or from other sources.
• Using outside sources (books, or other written sources) without giving proper credit (by naming the source and putting any exact words in quotation marks).
• Intentionally impairing the performance of other students and/or a faculty member.
• Engaging in collusion, i.e., knowingly or intentionally helping another student perform an act of academic misconduct.
• Using, or attempting to use materials, or assisting others in using materials that are prohibited or inappropriate in the context of the academic assignment.