Graduate School
University rules and procedures
Each member of the VCU community has certain responsibilities, rights and privileges. These are stated in some detail in the VCU Rules and Procedures [PDF], and all students are responsible for being familiar with provisions of this document. The rules and procedures are printed in the VCU Insider and also are available at the Office of Judicial Affairs and Academic Integrity. This document also provides for the process whereby disciplinary action, including separation from VCU, may be taken against a member of the university community as a result of behavior that is in violation of the prohibited conduct as stated in the VCU Rules and Procedures.
VCU recognizes that honesty, truth, and integrity are values central to its mission as an institution of higher education. Therefore, all students are subject to the VCU Honor System. All graduate students are responsible for being familiar with provisions of this document.
Graduate students at VCU have a right to appeal actions of an academic nature. If such action involves a course grade, the Grade Review Procedures as published in the Rules and Procedures should be followed. If such action involves computing, the Computer and Network Resources Use Policy should be followed.
In addition to those standards of conduct described in VCU Rules and Procedures and the VCU Honor System, students enrolled at the university may be dismissed from the academic programs in which they are enrolled for failure to meet prescribed academic program requirements. Students appealing terminations from their graduate degree programs/departments should first pursue appeals at the program/department and/or the school level. After receiving the program/department and/or school decision, students have the option of filing an appeal with the graduate dean in the process outlined in the Appeal Process for Students Terminated from VCU Graduate Degree Programs.
VCU seeks to foster insight, imagination, creativity, resourcefulness, diligence, honesty and responsibility as well as the education of the men and women enrolled in its graduate programs. Such an enterprise can take place only where the highest standards of academic integrity exist.
Academic dishonesty is the giving, taking or presenting of information or material by students with the intent of unethically or fraudulently aiding themselves or others on any work that is to be considered in the determination of a grade or the completion of academic requirements. Students in doubt regarding any matter related to the standards of academic integrity in a given course or on a given assignment should consult with the faculty member responsible for the course before presenting the work.