Article 1, Part 4 – Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
Main Content
§ 1‑405 Appeal Procedures
How to Appeal. The student may appeal the Instructor’s decision based on the set of grounds in subsection (c) below by submitting a written Notice of Appeal to the Appeal Manager within five (5) business days from the date of the Instructor’s Decision Notice, except as provided in subsection (g)(1) below. In the Notice of Appeal, the Appellant must identify themselves, identify one or more grounds for appeal (see subsection (c) below) that apply in their case, and provide reasons in support of the grounds identified.
Access to Record. From the date of the Instructor’s Decision Notice to the date of the appeal hearing, if applicable, the student may request, in writing to the Appeal Manager, access to the Record of the case. The Appeal Manager must provide access, under reasonable conditions, by the end of the next business day. If an appeal hearing is held, the Appellant, the Instructor, and their consultants must be provided access to the Record for the duration of the hearing.
Grounds for Appeal. The Appellant must base the appeal exclusively on one or more of the following grounds:
The Instructor (or any other involved university official) did not follow the procedures described above, and this procedural error affected the outcome of the case.
The Instructor (or any other involved university official) had a conflict of interest or bias that affected the outcome of the case.
Any sanctions imposed were not appropriate for the violation(s).
New information that was not available at the time of the Instructor’s decision exists and would have affected the outcome of the case.
Jurisdiction. If all sanctions issued are Category 1 or 2 (See § 1-404(a).) and the department or unit in which the infraction is alleged to have occurred has ten or more full-time faculty members, then the department is responsible for addressing the appeal. Otherwise, the college responsible for the course or degree requirement is responsible for addressing the appeal. If the Instructor has recommended suspension or dismissal, the special procedures described in subsection (g) below shall be followed.
Initial Review. No more than five (5) business days after receiving the Notice of Appeal, the Appeal Manager will determine whether the Appellant has met the requirements set out in subsection (a) above and provide written notification of their determination to the Appellant. The Appeal Manager is not to evaluate whether the Appellant has successfully established any grounds for appeal, but only whether the Appellant has identified at least one ground for appeal and provided one or more reasons in support of that ground. If the ground identified is the existence of new information, the Appeal Manager will determine whether the information submitted “was not available at the time of the Instructor’s decision” when deciding if the Appellant has met the appeal requirements. Overall, any uncertainty should result in a decision in the Appellant’s favor. If the Appeal Manager determines that the appeal requirements have not been met, the Appeal Manager will reject the Notice of Appeal, and the Instructor’s decision will become final.
Appeal Hearings
Appeal Committee Membership. The Appeal Manager will appoint a faculty chair, who will be a non-voting member of the appeal committee. The chair will then select at least two faculty and at least one student as additional members. Any student members will be of the same status as the Appellant (undergraduate or graduate). In matters involving both undergraduate and graduate Appellants, at least one undergraduate student and at least one graduate student must serve on the committee. Only faculty and students without a conflict of interest (as determined by the chair) shall serve.
Challenges to Appeal Committee Membership. The Appellant and the Instructor will be given an opportunity to challenge the objectivity of any voting member of the appeal committee. Such a challenge must be based on an identified bias or an identified conflict of interest. The Appeal Manager will decide whether this opportunity is provided prior to the hearing or during the hearing itself. If provided prior to the hearing, the chair will consider these challenges when making a final decision regarding committee membership. If provided during the hearing, the chair will determine whether to excuse the challenged committee member from the hearing and whether any resulting vacancy requires that the hearing be postponed.
Notice of Hearing. The Appeal Manager will notify the Appellant and the Instructor by email of the date and time of the hearing and any instructions for participating at least five (5) business days in advance. At the Appeal Manager’s discretion, the hearing may take place virtually using video conference or other similar technology.
Hearing Rules.
Appeal hearings are closed to the public.
The Appellant, the Instructor, and their consultants may attend the hearing but are not required to do so. At the chair’s discretion, other faculty or staff members may be allowed to attend to advise, or provide administrative support to, the appeal committee.
The chair may exclude from the hearing any person who disrupts the orderly process of the hearing but will do so only after first issuing a warning. The Chair need not consider this cause to reschedule the hearing or continue the hearing on a later date.
The chair will identify reasonable breaks throughout the hearing Appellant and the Instructor may also request additional breaks as needed, provided the number of requests is not disruptive to the orderly conduct of the hearing. The chair will decide whether to grant any such requests.
After consultation with the other committee members, the chair may decide to continue the hearing to another day for good cause, including the inability to complete all required steps of the hearing process within a reasonable time frame. The Appellant and the Instructor must be notified of the date, time, and location at least five business days in advance, but prior notification of possible continuance dates will satisfy this requirement.
The chair may set additional rules for the hearing as needed, provided they do not conflict with any provision of these procedures.
Order of the Proceedings. The Appellant and the Instructor may each make a brief opening statement, after which the committee members may ask relevant questions of each. The chair will give both the Appellant and the Instructor an opportunity to suggest questions to be asked of the other, but the chair may choose not to pose a question if it has already been answered, is irrelevant, or is inappropriate. The chair may also reword a relevant question that is asked in a manner that, in the chair’s opinion, is confusing or is intended to disparage, intimidate, or otherwise harass the individual being questioned. The committee, through the chair, may solicit information or statements from any person it deems relevant to the matter in dispute, either at its own initiative or at the suggestion of the Appellant or Instructor. All such information must be presented in the hearing and not in closed deliberation.
Deliberation. The appeal committee will deliberate in closed session and will decide by simple majority vote whether the Appellant has met any of the grounds for appeal. Absent a majority to the contrary, the Instructor’s original decision shall be affirmed. If one or more of the grounds for appeal have been met, the appeal committee may modify the finding and/or the sanction, overturn the Instructor’s decision entirely, or return the case to the procedural step at which an error occurred for reconsideration. The appeal committee may not issue a sanction of a higher category than the Instructor’s original sanction (See § 1-404(a).).
Combined Hearings. At the sole discretion of the Appeal Manager, a single appeal hearing may be scheduled for multiple Appellants provided that the allegations against those Appellants arise out of the same facts or circumstances. Such a hearing will be conducted as described above with the following additional rules:
Information about one Appellant’s academic record or sanctions may not be shared with another Appellant unless, in the chair’s opinion, that information is necessary for determining whether one or more grounds for appeal apply to the latter Appellant’s case.
Except as described in the previous subsection, any discussions of an Appellant’s academic record or sanctions must be conducted separately.
Appeal Decision Notice. The chair or their designee will provide written notification of the appeal committee’s decision to the Appellant, Instructor, and EO within three (3) business days of the appeal hearing. If the appeal committee has found that one or more of the grounds for appeal have been met, this notice must identify the applicable grounds and must include an explanation of the committee’s finding and a rationale for the specific relief provided.
Finality of the Appeal Decision. The decision of the appeal committee is final and binding on the Appellant and the Instructor.
Special Procedures for Handling Recommendations for Suspension or Dismissal
If the Instructor recommends that the student be suspended or dismissed from the university, the EO shall review the Record, discuss the matter with the Instructor and with the student, and then determine whether to support the recommendation.
If the EO declines to support the recommendation, the EO shall provide Notice to both the Instructor and the student. The student shall then have five (5) business days from the date of the EO’s Notice to appeal the Instructor’s finding and/or sanctions, as described in subsection (a) above.
If the EO supports the recommendation, the EO shall provide Notice to both the Instructor and the student and forward the matter to the Dean for a hearing by the college in which the course or examination was offered. The college shall conduct an appeal hearing in accordance with subsection (f) above except, in the event the student is affiliated with a different college, the dean of the student’s college shall be invited to name a representative from the student’s college to serve as a non-voting member of the committee. The appeal committee shall consider the facts of the case and determine whether suspension or dismissal is warranted. If the student also intends to appeal the Instructor’s finding(s) or sanction(s), the student shall have five (5) business days from the date of the EO’s Notice to submit a Notice of Appeal to the Dean, and that appeal shall be decided at the same hearing.
If the appeal committee determines that suspension or dismissal is warranted, the Dean shall forward the recommendation to the Director of Office for Student Conflict Resolution, who will schedule a hearing before at least three members of the Senate Committee on Student Discipline.
The question before the members of the Senate Committee on Student Discipline will be whether the breach of academic integrity in question is of such a nature as to warrant suspension or dismissal of the student. The members may take into consideration prior findings of academic integrity violations against the student when determining if suspension or dismissal from the university is warranted. If the members do not concur with the recommendation of suspension or dismissal, they may impose a lesser formal sanction and/or educational sanctions, along with any course-based sanctions imposed by the Instructor. (See the Student Disciplinary Procedures at https://conflictresolution.illinois.edu/policies/student-discipline/ for permissible sanctions.) The Director of the Office for Student Conflict Resolution shall inform the Dean of the members’ decision, and the Dean shall notify the Instructor and EO of the unit in which the infraction occurred. The decision of the members of the Senate Committee on Student Discipline shall be final.
Appeal Timeline. The Appeal Manager is responsible for promptly resolving any appeal. The anticipated duration of the appeal process is approximately 20 business days from the day the Notice of Appeal is received. The actual duration may vary depending on, for example, the complexity of the case, the need for language assistance or accommodation of disabilities, and the possibility of interruption by break periods. If the duration of the appeal process will substantially exceed 20 business days, the Appeal Manager will notify, in writing, both the Appellant and the Instructor of the delay and the reason for the delay. If the appeal is not held in a timely manner, as described above, the college may decide to dismiss the case.