Information for Students

The first step is to bring the matter to your attention. Using a Notice of Investigation (NOI) form, the instructor will inform you of the following by email to your Queen's email address:

• The information on which the investigation is based (you should be supplied with all documents related to the investigation)
• Your right to respond to the investigation in writing or in person
• Your right to have representation for any response made to the investigation
• The Smith School of Business resources available for consultation (i.e. this website)
• The information on the website of the Office of the University Ombudsperson about student rights and responsibilities and University policies and procedures

You may not drop the course while an investigation is under way. If the outcome of the investigation results in a finding of a departure from academic integrity, the course will remain on your record (or, if dropped, it will be reinstated at that time).

It is important that you respond to the investigation. If you don't respond, your instructor will make a decision on the available evidence, without the benefit of hearing from you. To respond, you may choose to:

1. Meet with your instructor to discuss the matter. If you prefer to meet, you must contact your instructor no later than ten business days after receiving the NOI to arrange a mutually agreeable time.
2. Submit a written response to the instructor. If you prefer to respond in writing you must inform your instructor within 10 business days that you intend to respond in writing. You then have an additional 5 business days from the day that you informed your instructor to submit your written statement.

In advance of the meeting and/or in preparing your written response, you should:

• Review the evidence provided by the instructor
• Collect (If applicable) all drafts and related materials relevant to the particular piece of work at issue
• (If applicable,) collect any other relevant documentation, such as evidence of mitigating circumstances, to support your explanation
• Seek advice from an informed member of the Queen's community, such as the Office of the University Ombudsperson, or anyone whose advice you trust and value (e.g. parents, a close relative, friend, counselor.)

Take these steps into consideration when estimating the time it will take you to prepare your response, whether it is in writing, in person, or both.

While the formality of the process may seem stressful it is for your benefit. Specifically, your instructor is able to share their concerns with you and you are able to respond to those concerns before your instructor decides whether you have departed from academic integrity, and if yes, an appropriate sanction. If you choose to meet in person with your instructor you may also decide to prepare something in writing to ensure you remember everything you want to say and to leave with the instructor for reference.

In situations where your instructor’s concerns are valid (e.g. you did collaborate with another student or you did copy portions of website verbatim), you are able to explain how and why you engaged in such activities and, if relevant, provide documented evidence of mitigating circumstances.

In situations where you did not depart from academic integrity, this is your opportunity to provide a detailed explanation of why the evidence is not as it seems and how the concerns in question came about. For example, you may explain your line of thinking in preparing the work the way you did and provide copies of earlier drafts of your work.

To accompany you to the meeting, you may invite an advisor such as a friend, advocate, or legal support person of your choice. If you decide to bring legal counsel, however, you must advise the instructor in advance.

Most investigations are completed after this meeting. In a small number of cases the instructor may gather new information following the initial meeting/written statement. This is often done through the process of confirming statements that you made during the meeting. If new information is gathered, you will be provided with a copy of the new evidence. You will then have five business days to submit a written response to the new information.

The instructor shall decide whether to make a finding of a departure from academic integrity or to dismiss the case based on: the applicable rules, regulations, policies and procedures, related to academic integrity; the evidence that was considered; the arguments made by you; and their own assessment of the relative credibility and strength of the evidence.

At this point in the investigation, the instructor is not entitled to know about any previous departure(s) from academic integrity by you, and any previous departure is not relevant to the finding

• If the instructor is satisfied with your explanation and determines that there are no grounds for a finding of departure from academic integrity, all documents related to the case will be destroyed and the instructor will inform you that the investigation has been dropped.
• If the instructor believes that there is evidence that a departure from academic integrity has taken place, the instructor will make a finding of departure from academic integrity.

If your instructor has concluded that you have departed from academic integrity, they will then classify the departure as a minor (Level 1) or major (Level II) departure. If you have a prior finding on record then the sanction will automatically be categorized as a Level II.

Level I findings are retained in a separate academic integrity file in the Smith School of Business and are only accessed in the case of a subsequent finding. If you do not have a subsequent finding of a departure from academic integrity, the current finding will not be added to your official Smith School of Business file. Level I findings are destroyed upon your graduation.

Level II findings are retained in your official school file and are retained for 10 years after your graduation. Please see Sections 1.6.3 and 1.7 of the SAIP - RFS Oct 2021 for more information on who has access to your official file and when and how such information might be referenced in the future.

If you are a student studying at Queen's on an exchange program or on a Letter of Permission and the departure is categorized as Level II, or if you are in a collaborative degree program offered jointly with another post-secondary institution (the “partner institution”), your home university or the partner institution, as applicable, will be notified of the finding and remedy or sanction, if the finding is confirmed after all avenues of appeal have expired or been exhausted (see Section 3 of the SAIP - RFS Oct 2021).

Where there is a finding of departure from academic integrity, the instructor is expected to assign an appropriate remedy or sanction that reflects the extent and severity of the departure. After the finding is made, the instructor may consult with the Smith Academic Integrity Administrator on an appropriate sanction. The instructor will also contact the Smith Academic Integrity Administrator to determine if there have been any previous departures from academic integrity. In the case of a second or multiple findings, the matter will be referred to the Smith Academic Integrity Lead for consideration of a sanction. Your case will also be referred to the Smith Academic Integrity Lead for sanctioning if you are a student in another school or faculty, and/or the departure is sufficiently serious that a sanction outside those instructors may assign is warranted.

• An oral or written warning
• A learning experience involving a rewriting or revision of the original piece of work
• The submission of a new piece of work
• The completion of other work
• The deduction of partial or total marks for the assignment/exam
• A failing grade (down to a grade of zero) in the course.

If the remedy or sanction affects the student’s grade in the course, the student may NOT drop the course regardless of the drop deadlines, and the student may be reinstated in the course if the course was dropped prior to the finding being decided. Regardless of whether the student is permitted to drop the course with which the finding is associated, the finding will remain on file in the appropriate location given its categorization as a Level I or Level II finding.

When a case is referred to the AI Lead for the assignment of a remedy or sanction, the instructor must complete the Finding form to provide you

• the details of the finding,
• the reasons for the finding, the evidence upon which the finding was made,
• (as applicable) a copy of any email correspondence with you related to the investigation, your written response, a summary of the statements provided by you during a meeting and/or any documentation provided by you as part of the investigation, and
• the categorization of the departure as Level I or Level II

When instructor decides that the finding warrants a remedy or sanction within the scope of those available to the them and the case is not being referred to the AI Lead, the instructor must also include the following information in the finding form

• the remedy(ies) or sanction(s);
• the reasons for the remedy(ies) or sanction(s), including any mitigating or aggravating circumstances;
• your right to appeal the finding and/or the remedy(ies) or sanction(s) to the AI Lead;
• the deadline for appealing to the AI Lead;
• the Smith School of Business resources available for consultation (i.e. this website) and the information on the website of the Office of the University Ombudsperson about student rights and responsibilities and University policies and procedures; and
• if you are studying at Queen’s on an exchange program or on a Letter of Permission and the departure is categorized as Level II, or if you are in a collaborative degree program offered jointly with another post-secondary institution (the “partner institution”), that the your home university or the partner institution, as applicable, will be notified of the finding and remedy or sanction if the finding is confirmed after all avenues of appeal have expired or been exhausted.

The finding form will be emailed to you at your Queen's email address.

If your case has been referred to the Academic Integrity Lead for sanctioning (because it is not your first finding on record, the departure is sufficiently serious to warrant a sanction beyond what an instructor can assign and/or you are located in another faculty in the school), the AI Lead will review the evidence and explanations in the decision letter received from instructor and, as appropriate, also review your prior violations and/or consult with the AI Lead in your home faculty or school to determine an appropriate sanction. Once this has been done, the AI Lead will email a letter to you at your Queen's email address with the following information:

• the remedy(ies) or sanction(s);
• the reasons for the remedy(ies) or sanction(s), including any mitigating or aggravating circumstances;
• your right to appeal the finding and/or the remedy(ies) or sanction(s);
• the deadline for appealing;
• the School of Business resources available for consultation (i.e. this website) and the information on the website of the Office of the University Ombudsperson about student rights and responsibilities and University policies and procedures; and
• if you are studying at Queen’s on an exchange program or on a Letter of Permission and the departure is categorized as Level II, or if you are in a collaborative degree program offered jointly with another post-secondary institution (the “partner institution”), that your home university or the partner institution, as applicable, will be notified of the finding and remedy or sanction if the finding is confirmed after all avenues of appeal have expired or been exhausted

• You may appeal the decision and/or the sanction imposed by the instructor in writing to the Smith Academic Integrity Panel, within 7 days of receiving the instructor’s decision.
• If the Smith Academic Integrity Panel made the initial decision, you may appeal in writing to the Smith Academic Appeals Committee, within 7 days of receiving the Panel’s decision.
• If considering an appeal, you are encouraged to contact the Office of the University Ombudsperson who can be consulted on information about student rights and responsibilities and guidance on policy and procedure.
• As decisions on departures from academic integrity are academic matters, the Smith Academic Appeals Committee’s decision is normally final. If, however, a student believes that there are grounds for an appeal on other than academic grounds, the student may initiate an appeal to the University Student Appeals Board (USAB), as described in the Senate's Policy on Student Appeals, Rights and Discipline.