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Academic Honesty

Southern Virginia University’s Code of Conduct has three key virtues as its guide: Faithful, Honest, and Kind. The university community believes that developing honesty and integrity is an important part of its mission to lift students to high standards of personal and professional excellence. Academic honesty is a crucial component towards developing lifelong success and practice, and it is an essential part of our Code of Conduct.

It is the responsibility of everyone at Southern Virginia University to protect and uphold high standards of academic integrity, and therefore we have a careful university outline and process for handling cases of academic dishonesty. The following infractions are considered dishonest behavior that will result in academic consequences. 

  • Plagiarism: Presenting the thoughts, ideas, words, research, or knowledge of others as your own original work.

  • Cheating: Using tools or resources on an assignment which have been prohibited by the instructor. Helping another student to cheat, even when you are not being graded yourself, is also cheating. 

  • Lying: Engaging in any form of dishonest communication related to graded work. 

  • Non-compliance: deliberately disregarding rules of classroom behavior or assignment instructions as set by the instructor.  

All infractions will be reported to the Registrar who will distribute the report to the Academic Office and the Dean of Students office and will place the report in the student’s record. The Instructor will determine the penalty for each infraction. That penalty may only affect the student’s grade or standing in the course.  

If a student has multiple verified infractions of Academic Honesty, the Chief Academic Officer may meet with the student and impose additional penalties such as probation or suspension, which will affect the student’s overall standing with the University.