Faculty and staff members are required to provide reasonable accommodations to all students with disabilities who have provided appropriate documentation of the disability to the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD). Therefore, all students requesting accommodations because of a disability should be referred to the OSD.

Once the request has been made, the OSD will determine eligibility for disability-related services. Students must have a documented disability as defined by the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, and/or the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

If correct documentation has been submitted and a student qualifies for accommodation, the OSD will notify each instructor by letter. The letter from the OSD explains the accommodations necessary for that student. Please keep in mind that this information is to remain confidential and discussing accommodations with a student should be done discretely. If a student talks to a class member or another faculty member, that is his or her right, but not the right of the faculty member. All students sign a Release of Information Form so that the OSD may share the information with the necessary parties. Please do not share this information with anyone without written consent from the student.

For each trimester, it is then the student’s responsibility to notify the OSD of his or her updated class schedule, and the OSD will in turn notify each instructor by letter. If a faculty member feels that he or she cannot implement all of the recommended accommodations, the faculty member should contact the OSD to negotiate an acceptable alternative. The alternative will then be discussed with the student by the OSD and faculty member. The OSD is always available to assist faculty with devising suitable classroom and testing accommodations.

The following statement should be included in all AHU syllabi:

Students seeking accommodations must first contact the Disabilities Coordinator at 407-303-1870 or counseling@my.ahu.edu prior to or at the beginning of the trimester. The processing time for these forms is approximately two weeks. For further information see Disabilities.

AHU faculty and staff will take reasonable and appropriate steps to maintain confidentiality of the student and the information gathered.

8.2 Academic Freedom

All learning and all teaching take place within the framework of a worldview of the nature of reality, humanity, knowledge, and values. The roots of academic freedom in the Christian university are found in a principle that the best education is attained when intellectual growth occurs within an environment in which Biblically-based concepts are central to the aims of education.

AdventHealth University subscribes to principles of academic freedom generally held to be important in higher education. These principles make possible the disciplined and creative pursuit of truth, recognizing that freedom is never absolute and implies commensurate responsibilities.

At AHU, the principle of academic freedom is central to establishing such aims. This principle reflects a belief in freedom as an essential right in a democratic society, but with a particular focus in an academic community. It is the guarantee that instructors and students will be able to carry on the functions of learning, research, and teaching with minimum restrictions. It applies to subjects within the instructor’s professional expertise, within which there is a special need for freedom to pursue truth. It also applies to the atmosphere of open inquiry necessary in an academic community if learning is to be honest and thorough.

For the faith-based institution, academic freedom has an additional significance. This places a responsibility on Christian faculty to be self-disciplined, responsible, mature scholars, and to investigate, teach, and publish within the area of their academic competence without external restraint. They will have due regard for the character and aims of the institution and a concern for the spiritual and intellectual needs of their students.

8.3 Academic Integrity Policy

Academic integrity is fundamental to the vision and mission of AdventHealth University. We place a high value on truth which implies a corresponding intolerance of academic dishonesty. It is important that all students are judged on their ability, and that no student is unfairly allowed an advantage over others, affects the security and integrity of the learning process, or diminishes the reliability and quality of a conferred degree. To graduate ethical, skilled professionals and citizens is a desired outcome of the University.

Ethical and Professional Behavior

Students are expected to adhere to the ethical and professional standards associated with their programs and academic courses. Such standards are generally communicated to students by instructors and are available through publications produced by professional organizations. Unethical or unprofessional behavior will be treated in the same manner as academic dishonesty.

Categories of Academic Misconduct

The following document is concerned with students’ actions - not their intentions. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, the following actions:

A. Cheating on Examinations

Cheating is using or attempting to use materials, information, notes, study aids, or other assistance in any type of examination or evaluation which has not been authorized by the instructor.

Clarification

Students completing any type of examination or evaluation are prohibited from looking at another student’s materials and from using external aids of any sort (e.g., books, notes, calculators, electronic resources, or conversation with others) unless the instructor has indicated specifically in advance that this will be allowed.
Students may not take examinations or evaluations in the place of other persons. Students may not allow other persons to take examinations or evaluations in their place.
Students may not acquire unauthorized information about an examination or evaluation and may not use any such information improperly acquired by others.

B. Plagiarism

Plagiarism is intentionally or carelessly presenting the work of another as one’s own. It includes submitting an assignment purporting to be the student’s original work which has wholly or in part been created by another person. It also includes the presentation of the work, ideas, representations, or words of another person without customary and proper acknowledgment of sources. Students must consult with their instructors for clarification in any situation in which the need for documentation is an issue. Students will have plagiarized in any situation in which their work is not properly documented.

Clarification

Every direct quotation must be identified by quotation marks or appropriate indentation and must be properly acknowledged by parenthetical citation in the text, in a footnote, or endnote.
When material from another source is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in one’s own words, that source must be acknowledged in a footnote or endnote or by parenthetical citation in the text.
Information gained in reading or research that is not common professional knowledge must be acknowledged in a parenthetical citation in the text or in a footnote or endnote.
This prohibition includes, but is not limited to, the use of papers, reports, projects, and other such materials prepared by someone else.

C. Fabrication, Forgery and Obstruction

Fabrication is the use of invented, counterfeited, altered, or forged information in assignments of any type, including those activities done in conjunction with academic courses that require students to be involved in out-of-classroom experiences. Forgery is the imitating or counterfeiting of images, documents, signatures, and the like. Obstruction is any behavior that limits the academic opportunities of other students by improperly impeding their work or their access to educational resources.

Clarification

Fabricated or forged information may not be used in any laboratory experiment, report of research, or academic exercise. Invention for artistic purposes is legitimate under circumstances explicitly authorized by an instructor.
Students may not furnish to instructors fabricated or forged explanations of absences or of other aspects of their performance and behavior.
Students may not furnish, or attempt to furnish, fabricated, forged, or misleading information to University officials on University records or on records of agencies in which students are fulfilling academic assignments (including clinical sites, service learning, etc.).
Students may not steal, change, or destroy another student’s work. Students may not impede the work of others by the theft, defacement, or mutilation of resources so as to deprive others of their use.
Students may not access or use patient information in ways that violate HIPAA regulations.

D. Multiple Submissions

Multiple submission is the submission of the same or substantially the same work for credit in two or more courses. Multiple submission shall include the use of any prior academic effort previously submitted for academic credit at this or a different institution. Multiple submission shall not include those situations where the prior written approval of the instructor in the current course is given to the student to use a prior academic work or endeavor.

Clarification

Students may not normally submit any academic assignment, work, or endeavor in more than one course for academic credit of any sort. This will apply to submission of the same or substantially the same work in the same trimester or in different trimesters.
Students may not normally submit the same or substantially the same work in two different classes for academic credit even if the work is being graded on different bases in the separate courses (e.g., graded for research effort and content versus grammar and spelling).
Students may resubmit a prior academic endeavor if there is substantial new work, research, or other appropriate additional effort. The student shall disclose the use of the prior work to the instructor and receive the instructor’s permission to use it PRIOR to the submission of the current endeavor.
Students may submit the same or substantially the same work in two or more courses with prior written permission from all faculty involved. Instructors will specify the expected academic effort applicable to their courses and the overall endeavor shall reflect the same or additional academic effort as if separate assignments were submitted in each course. Failure by the student to obtain written permission from each instructor shall be considered a multiple submission.

E. Complicity

Complicity is assisting or attempting to assist another person in any act of academic dishonesty.

Clarification

Students may not allow other students to copy from their papers during any type of examination.
Students may not assist other students in acts of academic dishonesty by providing material of any kind that one may have reason to believe will be misrepresented to an instructor or other University official.
Students may not provide substantive information about test questions or the material to be tested before a scheduled examination unless they have been specifically authorized to do so by the course instructor. This does not apply to examinations that have been administered and returned to students in previous trimesters.

F. Misconduct in Research Endeavors

Misconduct in research is serious deviation from the accepted professional practices within a discipline or from the policies of the University in carrying out, reporting, or exhibiting the results of research or in publishing, exhibiting, or performing creative endeavors. It includes the fabrication or falsification of data, plagiarism, and scientific or creative misrepresentation. It does not include honest error or honest disagreement about the interpretation of data.

Clarification

Students may not invent or counterfeit information.
Students may not report results dishonestly, whether by altering data, by improperly revising data, by selective reporting, or analysis of data, or by being grossly negligent in the collecting or analysis of data.
Students may not represent another person’s ideas, writing, or data as their own.
Students may not appropriate or release the ideas or data of others when such data have been shared in the expectation of confidentiality.
Students may not publish, exhibit, or perform work in circumstances that will mislead others. They may not misrepresent the nature of the material or its originality, and they may not add or delete the names of authors without permission.
Students must adhere to all federal, state, municipal, and University regulations for the protection of human and other animal subjects.
Students may not conceal or otherwise fail to report any misconduct involving research, professional conduct, or artistic performance of which they have knowledge.

G. Computer Misuse

Use of computers that is disruptive, unethical or illegal use of the University’s computer resources, including any actions which violate the AdventHealth University Student Computer Use Policy is prohibited. Misuse of computers also includes disruptive, unethical or illegal use of the computers of another institution or agency in which students are performing part of their academic program.

Clarification

Students may not use the University computer system in support of any act of plagiarism.
Students may not monitor or tamper with another person’s electronic communications.
Students may not use University computer resources to engage in illegal activity, including but not limited to the following: illegally accessing other computer systems, exchanging stolen information, and violating copyright agreements which involve software or any other protected material.
Students may not use any University computer as a host system for any unauthorized service or application.

H. Misuse of Intellectual Property

Misuse of intellectual property is the illegal use of copyright materials, trademarks, trade secrets, or intellectual properties.

Clarification

Students may not violate the University policy concerning the fair use of copies. This policy can be found in the AHU Academic Catalog.

I. Policies and Procedures for Dealing with Academic Misconduct

Students suspected of academic misconduct, whether acknowledging involvement or not, shall be allowed to continue in the course without prejudice pending completion of the disciplinary process. If the instructor must submit a final course grade before the case is resolved, then the student should be given an “Incomplete,” which will not affect his or her GPA.

The instructor will report the incident to the department chair and inform the student in writing within five (5) business days of the discovery of presumed misconduct. The instructor will include in the written correspondence instructions for the student to contact the instructor and arrange a meeting time to discuss the allegation. The student may have an AdventHealth University faculty or staff member of his or her choice present at the meeting with the instructor if he or she chooses. The student must respond within five (5) business days from the date of the letter.
If the student does not respond to the notification, the instructor will continue with the investigation and complete a report without the student’s input.
The instructor may take up to five (5) business days to review all evidence, interview any witnesses, and may seek counsel from their department chair, or faculty colleagues.

Note: Any instructor or other staff member investigating a student of academic misconduct or who receives a complaint alleging misconduct that raises suspicion will contact the Office of Academic Administration or the Office of Student Services to request any record of prior academic misconduct.

4. The instructor then makes a decision regarding the allegation.

5. If the instructor determines that the student has not violated the academic misconduct policy, the student will be notified in writing within five (5) business days of concluding the review.

6. If the instructor determines that the student has violated the policy, the instructor will complete the Academic Integrity Report Form (AIRF-See Appendix A ) and send a meeting invitation to the student within five (5) business days of concluding the review.

7. When the student and faculty meet, the student will be asked to initial and sign the appropriate response. The student will be given a copy of the AIRF. The student may choose an AdventHealth University faculty or staff member to be present at the meeting with the instructor, if he or she chooses.

8. If the student fails to respond to the meeting invitation, the instructor will complete the Academic Integrity Report Form (See Appendix M) and impose a final academic sanction. A copy of the final academic sanction will be sent via certified mail to the student.

9. The original AIRF will be retained by the Department Chair and copies of the form will be submitted to the office of Academic Administration and the Office of Student Services.

10. If the instructor takes no action within (5) business five days of meeting with the student, the allegations will be considered dismissed.

11. The decisions of the Office of Academic Administration or the Office of Student Services may be appealed to the President, whose decision is final.

J. Disciplinary Sanctions for Academic Misconduct

Sanctions will be imposed according to the severity of the misconduct. Multiple sanctions may be imposed should the behavior call for the imposition of a more severe penalty. In all cases, the University reserves the right to require counseling or testing of students as deemed appropriate. Definitions of disciplinary sanctions include the following:

Academic action
May include altering a grade or assigning a failing grade for the assignment, examination, or course.
Note: All academic misconduct and sanctions are recorded on an Academic Integrity Report Form (AIRF), which is kept on file with the Department Chair, Office of Academic Administration, and the Office of Student Services. If student misconduct (academic or citizenship) reoccurs, the AIRF report will be taken into consideration in determining further sanctions.

Restitution
Students are required to compensate the University or other persons for damages, injuries, or losses. Failure to comply could result in suspension or dismissal.

Probation
There may be specific restrictions or extra requirements placed on the student for a specified period. A student found guilty of misconduct may be required to participate in a rehabilitation process. These may vary with each case and may include action not academically restrictive in nature, such as restriction from participation in University activities or other requirements. A student may be required to meet periodically with designated persons during probation or in a rehabilitation process. Any further misconduct on the student’s part during the period of probation may result in disciplinary suspension or dismissal.

University suspension

Suspension prohibits the student from attending the University. It prohibits the student from being present on specified University-owned, leased, or controlled property without permission for a specified period of time. Students placed on University disciplinary suspension must comply with all suspension requirements.

University dismissal

Dismissal permanently prohibits the student from attending classes at the University and prohibits the student from re-enrolling at the University.

Degree Nullification

If allegations of academic misconduct come to light subsequent to a student’s graduation from the University, the instructor, program director, or department chair may make recommendations for disciplinary action to the Office of Academic Administration. Sanctions may include nullification of the degree awarded. Decisions of this nature may be appealed to the President of the University.

The disciplinary authority of AdventHealth University is vested in the President, those asked by the President to act on his or her behalf, and in the committees and administrators of AdventHealth University for whom jurisdiction may be conferred for specific cases or specific areas of responsibility.

Resources

The following institutions’ policies were the sources referred to for guidance in the creation of the AdventHealth University Academic Integrity Policies and Procedures for Dealing with Academic Misconduct:

The University of Central Florida
The University of Cincinnati
The University of New Orleans
Rutgers University
Iowa State University
Central Michigan University

8.4 Campus Closing

Florida Campus: In the event the Florida Campus is closed, all classes will be suspended including all distance education courses currently being taught on the Denver Campus. Both Denver and Orlando campus students will receive identical messages through the emergency notification system relative to the closing and re-opening of the University campus.

Denver Campus: In the event of the Denver Campus being closed, the Chief Operating Officer will make the decision to close the University, contact all Denver Students through the emergency notification system and will notify the Senior Vice President of Student Affairs & Health and Biomedical Sciences or their designee in Orlando of the closing. Any coursework missed by the student during the Denver closing will be made up, per the individual course syllabi.

8.5 Citation Style

Authors cite sources used in a publication in order to give credit to the ideas they have incorporated in their own work. This is necessary to avoid plagiarism. There are a range of styles available. The style one uses is dependent on the discipline or class for which an individual is writing. The MLA, APA, and Chicago are commonly used styles. The MLA style is from the Modern Language Association and is commonly used in the humanities. APA is from the American Psychological Association and is generally used for papers prepared for the social sciences, while history scholars use the Chicago and Turabian styles.

AdventHealth University recommends that the APA style be followed for writing assignments in its undergraduate courses and official University documents. However, when writing for journals or other publications, authors are expected to prepare their research proposals, abstracts, or articles in the writing styles required by their editors. Such citation styles will be appropriate when submitted to the AHU Scientific Review Committee (SRC) or the Institutional Review Committee (IRB).

Citation instructions for the APA style can be obtained at http://www.apastyle.org.

8.6 Course Grading

The Academic Catalog outlines the policies regarding deferred grades and incompletes. Deferred and Incomplete grades should be given only under special circumstances. An Incomplete is given when the student is unable to complete the work after the final withdrawal date within the trimester. (Students are responsible for completing the Request for Grade of Incomplete Form.) The Deferred grade is given when the instructor is unable to give a grade in a timely manner. A Deferred grade issued by the course instructor is to be submitted only with the department chair’s approval. The Deferred grade and Incomplete grade must be submitted when all other class grades are due to the Registrar’s Office.

Faculty are required to submit all grades within the requested deadlines.

All grade books are the property of AHU and must be submitted to the Department Chair at the end of each trimester.

Faculty, including adjunct instructional and online education, must follow the grading system as indicated in the catalog. The University uses pluses and minuses for undergraduates. Grades must be consistent and students must be aware of the grading scale and how grades are calculated. This must be clearly outlined in the course syllabus. Faculty are responsible to submit final grades within the requested deadlines.

Adjunct Faculty for Clinical Practice: Contract clinical faculty follow the clinical grading criteria and procedures as indicated by the course syllabus and corresponding student handbook supplement.

8.7 Course Syllabus

Course syllabi should follow the Sample Syllabus (see Appendix C ) with regards to order and information required. An electronic copy of syllabi should be submitted to the Department Chair prior to the beginning of class for departmental approval.

Adjunct Faculty for Clinical Practice: Clinical faculty do not have the responsibility for the course syllabus, but should be familiar with the course content.

8.8 Exams

All exams should be given within the regular class schedule. A schedule of final exams is published at the beginning of the trimester. Efforts will be made to schedule final exams on the day and time that the class meets.

8.9 Graduation

The Commencement ceremony follows the end of the Spring trimester each year.

Administration and Faculty are required to participate in the Commencement Processional. Staff are welcome to march if they choose. Information on graduation is distributed early in the Spring trimester each year. All employees are required to attend the commencement ceremony. Adjunct Faculty are invited, but not required, to participate in the Commencement Processional.

8.10 Intellectual Property Policy

Refer to the published policy in Appendix B .

8.11 Office Hours

Office hours and contact information should be posted by offices and available online in courses. Office hours may also be a combination of in-person and virtual. Appropriate representation of each department on campus is expected during weekdays. Contract faculty should check with the department in which they are teaching for designated office space. Due to the nature of online education, each course will have set forth a schedule of online hours. A schedule of office hours should be provided to the students.

8.12 Response to Course Work Emails

Faculty members are to respond to course work emails within 24 hours whenever possible and no later than 48 hours. Click here for full policy.

8.13 Student Attendance

Faculty members are required to take student attendance for each didactic and laboratory class period. The faculty member will record all student tardiness and absenteeism. The last day of attendance will be reported to the Registrar’s Office for class(es) dropped. Faculty will complete and submit an administrative drop form to the Registrar’s Office if a student has not been in attendance for 14 calendar days. Access the Faculty Taking Student Attendance Policy.

Adjunct Faculty for Clinical Practice: Student tardiness and absenteeism should be documented according to program and departmental policies and reported to the appropriate course coordinator or program director in a timely manner.

Adjunct Faculty for Online Education: Student attendance and participation should follow the requirements outlined in the contract per the University’s policy. If a student drops a class, the last day of participation should be included on the Drop/Add Form.

Student Drop/Withdrawal Policy: Students desiring to withdraw from a class should complete the appropriate Drop/Withdrawal Form available from the Registrar’s Office.

If a student is absent for a period of two consecutive weeks, the faculty should contact the Registrar’s Office to initiate an administrative drop. This form must include the last date of attendance for the student.