Kutztown University.

What KU's Academic Honesty policy (ACA-027) says about how cases proceed

Who may be present

"All principal parties are entitled to appear at the hearing with an advisor, who may be an attorney." The policy does not address whether a hearing may be recorded, in either direction. — ACA-027, Academic Honesty – Undergraduate Students · Policy Register

What follows on the record

The policy does not use the word "transcript." Records are kept by the Registrar "as evidence to be used in the event of future academic dishonesty violations by the same student": destroyed "two (2) years after the student graduates or leaves the University" by default, "expunged after a six-year period" for a suspension, and kept "permanently" where the student is "suspended or dismissed" (the policy's own text does not reconcile this with the six-year suspension rule). — ACA-027 · Policy Register

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

ACA-027, Academic Honesty – Undergraduate Students (Effective Date: Fall 2019; Approved by University President: May 28, 2019; Last Reviewed: April, 2022; retrieved Oct 18, 2026), sets an informal step first: on suspecting a violation, "the instructor shall inform the student that the student must meet with the instructor to discuss the incident," with the meeting to "occur within one (1) week after the instructor calls for it," confirmed by email; where an in-person meeting cannot happen, "correspondence by email would serve in place of completion of the form." For a sanction greater than a course grade, the instructor instead begins the Formal Resolution Process by "submitting an Academic Dishonesty Form – Undergraduate Students along with supporting evidence" to the Registrar "within two (2) weeks of becoming aware of the violation." A student who disputes a sanction has "ten (10) calendar days from the date the student was notified of the alleged academic dishonesty" to request a formal hearing before the Undergraduate Academic Honesty Committee, described as "a six-member Senate committee, five voting members and one non-voting member," with "[a] representative from the Registrar's Office" serving as that non-voting member. The stated standard of proof: "The standard of evidence used in such proceedings is preponderance, therefore, a decision of responsibility will be based upon presented evidence sufficient to make a reasonable person believe that it was more likely than not a student is in violation of University policy."

Sanctions, in the policy's own order: a grade-reduction penalty within the course, "and/or" additional academic requirements at the instructor's discretion; a failing grade of "F" for the course; temporary suspension from enrollment; or permanent dismissal from enrollment. Appeal of a committee ruling runs first to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, "within one (1) week of the ruling," and then, as a second and final appeal, to the University President or the President's designee, again "within one (1) week," whose ruling "shall be final." Source: ACA-027 — Policy Register. What these quotations mean for any particular case is for the institution and its process to determine; they are reproduced so you can read the originals in context.

Revision history of this page

2026-10-18 — Page created. Priority A tranche 4, entry 273. Cold build (scheduled, unattended); no prior CANDIDATES.md/procedure-facts.json research to reuse. First PASSHE member institution built in this collection; per QUEUE.md's standing note to check for a system-level position at the first PASSHE build, a search of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's own policy pages found no system-wide Board of Governors policy on AI detection or generative AI. One PASSHE member, PennWest University, publishes its own campus-level AI Acceptable Use policy (AC072, Adopted 8/26/2024), located only as evidence that PASSHE leaves this to individual campuses, not quoted here as Kutztown's policy. Recorded in QUEUE.md so later PASSHE entries do not repeat this search. All quotations retrieved this date. Named-vendor sweep (Turnitin and its AI writing detector specifically, SimCheck, Originality, Copyleaks, iThenticate, GPTZero, Originality.ai, Winston AI, Crossplag, ZeroGPT, Packback, Grammarly Authorship, Honorlock, Proctorio, Respondus, Examity), bounded to KU's IT Solutions Center help-desk knowledge base and one additional site search, found only Turnitin, confirmed first-party via two help-desk articles: a new-student orientation guide (modified 10/31/25) stating Turnitin "scans for AI-generated text," and a faculty-facing Feedback Studio article (modified 7/28/21) describing per-folder, per-instructor activation with no AI-specific or reliability language. DETECTOR RELIANCE: a help-desk search for "AI" returned nothing beyond those two articles; no weight statement and no process-based verification method located; both none-published at the scope searched. DISQUALIFICATION CHECK: nothing located recommends against AI detection or states it has been disabled; not disqualified. PROCESS, FROM ACA-027 (Effective Fall 2019; Approved 5/28/2019; Last Reviewed April 2022): an informal instructor-student meeting step (one week to meet, email alternative if no in-person meeting is possible), a Formal Resolution Process beginning with an Academic Dishonesty Form filed with the Registrar within two weeks, a ten-calendar-day window for the student to request a hearing before the six-member Undergraduate Academic Honesty Committee (a Registrar's Office representative as the non-voting member), a stated preponderance standard ("more likely than not"), four ranked sanctions (grade reduction, course failure, temporary suspension, permanent dismissal), and a two-step appeal (Provost, then President or designee, one week each, final). ACCOMPANIMENT: an advisor "who may be an attorney" may appear at the hearing; recording is not addressed either way. RECORDS: the policy's own three retention rules do not fully reconcile — a six-year expungement is stated for suspension specifically, while a separate sentence states permanent retention for a student "suspended or dismissed"; both are reproduced verbatim rather than resolved. No transcript-notation language exists anywhere in the policy. OFFICE: Office of the Registrar, 115 Stratton Administration Center, 610-683-4485, regoffice@kutztown.edu, confirmed on the office's own contact page. OMBUDS/ADVOCACY: the Office of Student Assistance's own page lists "assistance with an academic matter, such as a withdrawal, grade appeal, or academic misconduct" among its reasons to contact it, and describes itself only as a "supportive, student-centered space" — not independent, confidential, or neutral in KU's own words, so it is presented here with that caveat rather than as an ombuds office. A separate Student Conduct office (610-683-1320, studentconduct@kutztown.edu) was found but not used in the docket, since ACA-027 routes academic-honesty cases through the Registrar and the Senate committee, not through Student Conduct. Nothing paraphrase-pending. Archive captures pending — not requested this pass (unattended scheduled run). Reviewer: Carrie Schluter (review confirmed 2026-10-18).

2026-10-18 — Internet Archive captures requested this date by an automated capture pass; 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: Turnitin (TII) Feedback Studio (Faculty) — IT Solutions Center → https://web.archive.org/web/20261018140317/https://itsolutions.kutztown.edu/support/solutions/articles/9000203087-turnitin-tii-feedback-studio-faculty-; Welcome to KU! (New Students) — IT Solutions Center → https://web.archive.org/web/20261018140406/https://itsolutions.kutztown.edu/support/solutions/articles/9000272139-welcome-to-ku-new-students-; kutztown.edu/about-ku — Registrar Contact → https://web.archive.org/web/20261018140551/https://kutztown.edu/about-ku/administrative-offices/registrar/contact-us.html; kutztown.edu/about-ku — Student Assistance → https://web.archive.org/web/20261018140625/https://kutztown.edu/about-ku/administrative-offices/student-assistance.html; Policy Register → https://web.archive.org/web/20261018140755/https://www.kutztown.edu/about-ku/administration/governance/policy-register/aca-027-academic-honesty-undergraduate-students.html.

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