University of the Cumberlands.

What Cumberlands' own documents say about how cases proceed

Who may be present

Not stated in the sources reviewed. The Student Handbook 2026-2027's Student Conduct and Social Discipline section describes the student's opportunity to respond without naming anyone who may accompany them: “If the complaint is deemed worthy of investigation, the student will be advised of the complaint. If the student denies the charge(s) or wishes to offer extenuating evidence in mitigation of punishment, the student shall be afforded an opportunity to be heard and to offer evidence and witnesses.” The same section states: “The University does not use live hearings or cross-examination in its disciplinary processes except in responding to formal complaints under the University’s Title IX policy, as required by law.” The words advisor, attorney, counsel and support person appear in the Handbook only in the Title IX Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedure, a different process; the Academic Dishonesty Policy in both catalogs and the Handbook names no meeting at all. No provision on recording a meeting was located for academic discipline; the Handbook addresses recording only for Title IX hearings. — Student Handbook 2026-2027, pp. 26–27 (PDF dated Aug 25, 2026; retrieved Sep 5, 2026) · Student Handbook 2026-2027 (PDF)

What follows on the record

Not stated in the sources reviewed for academic dishonesty specifically. Neither catalog's Academic Dishonesty Policy nor the Handbook says whether a finding is noted on the transcript, how long it is retained, or whether it is disclosed to graduate programs, employers, or licensing boards. What the sources do say: the catalogs' grading sections state that “All attempts and grades received are recorded by the registrar on the permanent record (transcript).”; the Handbook's list of social-discipline sanctions includes “Record of Violation: Violations will be recorded and reported to the Director of Student Development and the Vice President for Student Affairs.”; and the Handbook's grievance procedure ends with records “maintained in accordance with the university's records retention policies.” The Handbook also reserves degree revocation: “The University reserves the right at any time to revoke a degree which was improperly awarded due to fraud, deceit, or error, and to rescind a degree in the case of a graduate’s egregious misconduct.” — 2026-2027 Undergraduate Catalog, Academic Information and Regulations (retrieved Sep 5, 2026); Student Handbook 2026-2027, pp. 11, 27, 52 · Undergraduate Catalog — Academic Information and Regulations · Student Handbook 2026-2027 (PDF)

The two questions an adviser raises first, answered from this institution’s own published documents — or recorded as not stated in them.

The governing text is short. The Academic Dishonesty Policy, in the same words in the 2026-2027 Undergraduate Catalog (Policies and Regulations) and the 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog (University Regulations), both effective August 24, 2026 through August 20, 2027 (retrieved Sep 5, 2026), defines the offense and names the office it goes to:

The four named forms are cheating ("using deception in the taking of tests or the preparation of written work, using unauthorized materials, copying another person’s work with or without consent, or assisting another in such activities"), lying, plagiarism ("using the published writings, data, interpretations, or ideas of another without proper documentation") and multiple submissions. The listed penalties are "a failing grade on a particular assignment," "a failing grade for the entire course," "suspension or expulsion, or" "revocation of a degree." The policy states no notification step, no meeting, no evidentiary standard and no filing deadline; the word "preponderance" appears in Cumberlands' documents only in the Title IX procedure. The Student Handbook 2026-2027 (p. 11) reproduces the policy and adds: "The University will not revoke any degree without following a fair process, including an opportunity for the graduate to respond to the evidence and to protect his or her interests."

The Handbook places academic discipline with a named office and separates it from student-conduct discipline (p. 26): "Discipline involving student conduct violations is handled through the office of the Director of Student Development. Discipline involving academic affairs is handled through the office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs." Among the student rights it lists (p. 24) is "The right to appeal disciplinary decisions resulting from any charge or violation of University policy."

The appeal route for academic discipline is stated on the university's Student Complaint Procedure page (undated; retrieved Sep 5, 2026), under the heading "Academic Appeals concerning grades or academic discipline such a plagiarism, class absence, etc.": "The student should complete the Academic Appeals form and submit to the following person, who has been designated to handle inquiries or complaints regarding academic appeals:" — Dr. Chris Leskiw, Vice President for Academic Affairs (Oversees Academic Appeals Committee), Gatliff 114, (606) 539-4214. The form itself sits behind the university's single sign-on and was not read. The Handbook's grievance section (p. 50) routes the same category — "Academic grievances concerning an academic experience, grades or academic discipline, such as plagiarism, class absence, etc" — to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and states that its general grievance steps do not apply to academic matters (p. 49): "Academic Appeals related to coursework, academic standing, and grades will not be covered in this section. Please refer to page 11- 12 in this Handbook or the Academic Catalog."

The catalog procedure that page 11–12 of the Handbook and the catalogs themselves set out is written for grade challenges: "Both undergraduate and graduate students have the right to challenge a grade. Before filing a formal appeal, the student must discuss the grade with the course instructor and department chair." A formal written appeal then goes to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, who forwards it to the chair of the Academic Appeals Committee; "This formal written appeal to challenge a grade must be filed four weeks after the last day of class for the semester in which the course being appealed occurred." The Committee reviews the written appeal, gathers information from the instructor and other parties, and recommends to the Vice President, who "will inform the student and instructor of the disposition of the complaint no later than the last day of classes of the term in which the complaint was filed." "Records of all actions regarding academic grade appeals, including their final disposition, are maintained by the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Academic Appeals Committee." Whether a failing grade imposed as an academic-dishonesty penalty is appealed under this grade-challenge procedure, or under some other, is not stated in the sources; the Handbook's general grievance section says only that "Specific appeal procedures for certain matters outside of student appeals (e.g., appeal of an academic decision, prohibited discrimination, or a Title IX grievance) are described in this Handbook or the applicable Catalog. In such cases, only that specific appeal procedure applies."

For completeness, the Handbook's general grievance-and-appeal steps (pp. 49–52), which by their own terms exclude academic appeals, read: "A student may file a formal grievance or appeal any adverse or unfair decision by a program, department, faculty, or staff member of the University, including a disciplinary decision for violation of University rules and regulations rendered ten (10) calendar days after the decision is communicated." — quoted as written, sentence structure included; a Vice President screens the filing against seven listed criteria and may dismiss it, resolve it, or elevate it to the Social Discipline and Grievance Committee, which "will deliver its recommendation on the appeal to the Chancellor within 30 days of the initial filing"; "The decision of the Chancellor is final." and "Any restrictions, interventions, or sanctions shall remain in effect before and during the appeal unless advised otherwise by a university official." What any of this means for a particular case is for the institution and its process to determine.

Sources: 2026-2027 Undergraduate Catalog — Policies and Regulations · 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog — University Regulations · Undergraduate Catalog — Academic Information and Regulations · Graduate Catalog — Academic Information and Regulations · Student Handbook 2026-2027 (PDF) · Student Complaint Procedure.

Revision history of this page

2026-09-05 — Page created. Detection-inventory sweep run first: named-vendor sweep across ucumberlands.edu (site search), catalog.ucumberlands.edu, ucumberlands.libguides.com, ucumberlands.libanswers.com and the IT knowledge base at ucumberlands.freshservice.com / helpdesk.ucumberlands.edu, plus full-text search of the Student Handbook 2026-2027 PDF (81 pp.) and the Doctoral Research Handbook PDF (37 pp.), found no reference to Turnitin, Copyleaks, iThenticate, GPTZero, Originality.ai, Winston AI, Crossplag, ZeroGPT, Packback, Unicheck or Grammarly Authorship, and none to Honorlock, Proctorio or Examity; it found SafeAssign (two LibGuides, two IT articles) and Respondus LockDown Browser (one IT article, stating it is to be removed from general use). Category sweep of the iLearn (Blackboard Ultra) faculty tutorials, the doctoral/dissertation pipeline, the testing-center and proctoring pages, the IT service catalogue and the library guides found nothing further. Disqualification check run on that completed inventory: not disqualified — SafeAssign is documented as available to all students and enabled by instructors, and no statement disabling or recommending against detection was located; the finding is that Cumberlands' documented tool is a similarity checker and that no AI-writing detector is named. Captured first-party this date by plain fetch: the Student Complaint Procedure page, the ChatGPT EDU page (accordion text read from the page DOM in the browser), the two LibGuides and the AI & Research guide, the two Freshservice articles, the Rollins Family Testing Center page, and the Undergraduate Catalog's Academic Information and Regulations page. Captured by browser read because plain fetch of catalog.ucumberlands.edu returned an empty body: the Undergraduate Catalog Policies and Regulations page and the Graduate Catalog University Regulations and Academic Information and Regulations pages. The Student Handbook 2026-2027 and the Doctoral Research Handbook are PDFs on the university's SharePoint tenant whose viewer is client-rendered and whose download endpoint returns nothing to a plain fetch; both were retrieved as complete files through the browser tab on this date (Student Handbook, 4,139,726 bytes, SHA-256 aa2e96ac5982a1996885011133e8b7f1d3837dfbf16ddb01cad1784104c19ae9; Doctoral Research Handbook, 546,853 bytes, SHA-256 eeb49edae732d11ae027f79b610bdc9a171cfbcfe9bd0f3bb731c6786b37f876), and every quotation from the Student Handbook was checked against a pdftotext extraction of that file — a first-party capture, not paraphrase-pending. Page numbers cited are the PDF's own. Deliberately omitted: a search-engine snippet naming a different Vice President for Academic Affairs (superseded by the page as read today); the Academic Appeals form and the Guardian conduct portal, which sit behind sign-on and were not read; page 1 of the UC Student AI Guide PDF, which did not decode (the guide is listed, not quoted); the LibAnswers "Academic Integrity" topic, whose single answer is client-rendered and was not read. No ombuds or student-advocacy office was located on Cumberlands' own pages; the Student Success Coordinators, who state that they "advocate for" students, are an academic-advising function within Academic Affairs and are not listed as one. University of the Cumberlands is a private institution: this page quotes brief excerpts and links originals; it republishes nothing in full. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter (review confirmed 2026-09-05).

2026-09-13 — Editorial review. Carrie Schluter read this page in full against its recorded first-party sources and found no change required. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter (review confirmed 2026-09-13).

2026-10-06 — Internet Archive captures requested on 2026-09-06 by an automated capture pass and recorded this date; no human review is claimed for this entry. No quotation, date, finding or link above was changed by it. Each capture below was requested through Save Page Now and then confirmed to play back. Captures added: Blackboard Ultra - Assessing Learners (IT knowledge base) → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906122346/https://ucumberlands.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/7000075583-blackboard-ultra-assessing-learners; Blackboard Original to Ultra Transition Steps (IT knowledge base) → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906122525/https://ucumberlands.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/7000085000-blackboard-original-to-ultra-transition-steps; AI & Research (LibGuides) → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906122658/https://ucumberlands.libguides.com/AIResearch; Dissertation — Writing & Citation (LibGuides) → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906122812/https://ucumberlands.libguides.com/c.php?g=1365543&p=11481755; Rollins Family Testing Center → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906122928/https://www.ucumberlands.edu/academics/academic-advising-assistance/rollins-family-testing-center; ChatGPT EDU → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906123052/https://www.ucumberlands.edu/student-life/student-services/information-technology-services/chatgpt-edu; Student Complaint Procedure → https://web.archive.org/web/20260906123134/https://www.ucumberlands.edu/student-life/student-services/student-complaint-procedure.

Spot an error or an outdated quotation? hello@gatheredwork.com — corrections are made on the record, in this log.