Faculty Authority to Assign Grades and Academic Integrity
The
Student Disciplinary Charter is based on the assumption that it is
the obligation and right of faculty members to assign grades for academic
work submitted to them by students under their supervision and that
faculty members should grade student work, using their best judment
about the quality and propriety of that work, independently of disciplinary
procedures. The present statement makes clear the relationship between
grading and disciplinary action in cases in which a faculty member
believes that a student did not fulfill an assignment in accord with
the Code of Academic Integrity.
The Disciplinary Charter rests on the principle that faculty members
have wide authority to judge the academic work of students and have
a general responsibility for the academic progress of students,
so much as lies within the power of faculty. Furthermore, the charter
assumes that violations of the norms of academic integrity fall
along a continuum from minor to major and that not all violations
need to be treated as disciplinary cases. The authority and responsibility
of faculty members require them to judge the relative severity of
a violation. Good individual judgment and institutional practice
will help faculty members make the judgment about when to treat
a case as requiring disciplinary action.
The distinction between academic evaluation and disciplinary action
is also important. Faculty members have the authority to make academic
judgments in relation to their students and to make decisions in
the interests of furthering their students' education. Only the
institution, acting through its formal processes, may discipline
a student. Grades are not sanctions, even if they arise from a judgment
that a student has violated a norm of academic integrity. In such
cases, the grade may reflect the faculty member's view that a piece
of work was done inappropriately, but it represents a judgment of
the quality of the work, not a record of discipline for the behavior.
There are many ways to do work inappropriately or badly, resulting
in low or failing grades. The policy of the charter is to preserve
the faculty member's right to grade work on the basis of all of
its qualities and to make the decision to pursue disciplinary action
a separate matter.
Students who believe that they have been graded unfairly have
recourse of appeal through the grade appeal procedures established
by each school. The charter explicitly recognizes the right of students
to appeal grades. The appeal of a grade given because a faculty
member believed that the student violated the norms of academic
integrity is, for the purposes of the charter, no different from
other grade appeals. |
