Academic Integrity Restoration (AIR): Rochester

(implemented Fall 2022)

• Request Form

Background

Academic Integrity Restoration (AIR) is a program offered to students at the end of the disciplinary process for scholastic dishonesty when they accept responsibility for violating the Student Conduct Code. Students are eligible to participate if they have no other incidents of scholastic dishonesty and they were not sanctioned with probation, suspension, or expulsion.

This process is similar to the expungement process for other types of conduct violations, with the important distinction being that the incident is still retained in the conduct record and will be considered when determining the sanction(s) for any future incidents. However, the incident will be recorded as “non-reported.” This means that if any external group (e.g. professional or graduate school, employer, etc.) requests the student’s conduct record, this incident will not be reported to them. As a result, when students complete applications for further schooling or employment they would not be required to disclose this incident. Any questions regarding this should be directed to the Student Conduct Team.

This process is a courtesy provided by University of Minnesota Rochester (UMR) and is not a requirement of law. UMR has no obligation to modify a student's conduct record.

Process

1. Students must wait until at least the semester following the incident to apply for AIR. Application is done through this online form.
2. A Community Meeting time will be scheduled that will include all students applying for AIR in the current semester, as well as 2-3 other members of the UMR community (faculty, staff, or students) and a member of the Student Conduct Team.
3. Student participants explain what happened and how their actions impacted others. They will then hear from individual community members regarding how they are impacted by scholastic dishonesty and how scholastic dishonesty impacts UMR and the broader community. 
4. The student, community members, and Student Conduct Team member create a plan for the student to repair the harm that their actions caused. The plan may include the student participating in a workshop, class, or educational experience in order to gain a greater understanding of academic integrity (see below for examples). 
5. Upon successful completion of the restorative plan, the student's disciplinary record will be changed to a non-reported record.

Example Plans

The following are examples of plans that might be used to restore the student’s academic integrity. Note that this list is not intended to be exhaustive or limit the options available; they are intended to give students and community members an idea of the range of possibilities.

• Meet with a University Librarian to discuss plagiarism and how to avoid it.
• Select one of the Online Webinars from the Turnitin's 2015 Plagiarism Education Week virtual conference. Watch the webinar and write a 1 page reflection on what you learned. More about the conference: "Copy/Paste/Culture," examines how current global trends are affecting our values, especially those related to education, and proposes strategies for how we can address these challenges.
• Look at the six fundamental values of Academic Integrity located on the ICAI website (honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage). Which do you think most applies to you as a student? Write a one page response, typed, double spaced, 12 point font. Include citations.
• Develop your personal “collaborating with integrity code” that you can use to guide your interactions with classmates. Specify what types of activities you won’t engage in, when an assignment is identified as one that does not allow collaboration.
• Write a paper about how an incident of plagiarism has had an impact on society within the last 10 years. What happened, how was it discovered, what impacts has it had? Include citations.
• Watch the TEDTalk for "The punishable perils of plagiarism" by Melissa Huseman D’Annunzio and complete the accompanying questions.
• Write a reflection on how you can make time for things when you don't have any time. In your reflection you should ask yourself how you think about time and incorporate information found on the SASS Website around time management.

Campus Governance Affirmation Votes

• Rochester Student Association: 9/13/2022
• Center For Learning Innovation Faculty: 10/11/2022
• Staff Assembly: 10/13/2022