Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

What the Student Handbook's Academic Misconduct Procedures say about how cases proceed

Who may be present

Not stated in the Academic Misconduct Procedures (Handbook Section 9.5.2) for a faculty decision or its Chair/Dean appeals. The Handbook's advisor-accompaniment right — "An opportunity to present evidence and witnesses and be accompanied by one advisor of their choice at a hearing. An advisor may be present but is not permitted to represent any student" — is stated in Section 9.5.1, titled for non-civil-rights, non-academic conduct procedures; it is not extended to the academic track by that section's own title, and this page does not assume it applies there. Recording is not addressed in either section.

What follows on the record

Not stated for a sanction short of suspension, dismissal, or expulsion. The Handbook's Transcript Notations provision (Section 9.9.5) states: "When a sanction of suspension, dismissal, or expulsion from campus is imposed as a result of a violation of the Code of Student Conduct, a notation may be made on the student's academic transcript." It adds that such a notation "will remain on student transcripts and may only be removed upon request by the student" if the student becomes eligible to reenroll or the institution finds good cause.

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

The university's Academic Integrity page for students (retrieved Oct 16, 2026) summarizes the first step this way:

Source: Academic Integrity for Students. Questions about sanctions or the conduct process go to Student Rights and Responsibilities by email, phone, or appointment, per the same page.

The 2026-2027 Student Handbook's Academic Misconduct Procedures (Section 9.5.2; retrieved Oct 16, 2026) set out the chain in more detail: a faculty decision carrying its own sanctions (written reprimand, redo of assignment, additional work, a failing grade on the assignment or in the course), appealable in writing to the Department/Program Chair within five business days, then to the Academic Dean (undergraduate) or the Dean of Graduate Studies (graduate) within five business days of the Chair's decision —

The Handbook defines the evidentiary standard centrally rather than inside Section 9.5.2 itself: "Preponderance of the Evidence — What is more likely than not to be true, based on the totality of the available evidence. The preponderance of the evidence is the standard of evidence used for all determinations made under the Code and Procedures." For "significant egregious offenses and/or repeated behavioral offenses," the Handbook states Student Rights and Responsibilities "shall investigate separate from the faculty action," with sanctions following "a fair and impartial assessment of all of the information collected during the investigation." Source: Student Handbook 2026-2027 (PDF), Sections 9.4 and 9.5.2.

DIVERGENCE RECORDED, NOT RESOLVED: the university's own Academic Integrity webpage states that a student who further contests a Chair-level decision is referred to "a hearing with an Academic Integrity Hearing Board, led by the Office of the Provost" — a body and a role the current 2026-2027 Handbook's Academic Misconduct Procedures do not name anywhere; the Handbook instead routes a contested Chair decision to the Academic Dean or Dean of Graduate Studies, whose decision it calls final. Both statements are reproduced because neither page reconciles with the other; the webpage was last observed without its own revision date. The general (non-academic) Student Code of Conduct process, separately published, states an appeal window of five business days on one or more of four grounds ("Substantial new evidence," "Violation of due process rights," "The sanction is not commensurate with the violation," "The finding of responsibility is inconsistent with the facts presented"), decided by the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs or designee, whose decision is "final and binding." Source: Student Conduct. What these quotations mean for any particular case is for the institution and its process to determine.

Revision history of this page

2026-10-16 — Page created. Cold build; no prior CANDIDATES.md or procedure-facts.json research to reuse. Named-vendor sweep (Turnitin AI writing indicator, SimCheck, Originality, Copyleaks, iThenticate, GPTZero, Originality.ai, Winston AI, Crossplag, ZeroGPT, Packback, Grammarly Authorship, Honorlock, Proctorio, Respondus, Examity) and category sweep (the Library's Turnitin and AI-for-Teachers guides, the AI Resources hub and its Generative AI Value Statement, the Academic Integrity/Student Conduct pages, and the Student Handbook) across tamusa.edu found NO AI-TEXT DETECTOR DOCUMENTED. Turnitin is confirmed in use only as a Blackboard-integrated similarity/plagiarism checker; the Student Handbook's Cheating definition treats unauthorized AI use as unauthorized assistance, not as something a detector flags. NOT A DISQUALIFICATION: an empty inventory, not a documented disabling or recommendation against a detector. SYSTEM POLICY NOTED, NOT TREATED AS A DETECTOR MANDATE: the library's AI-for-Teachers guide notes that the Texas A&M University System approved its own AI policy, 29.01.05, on Dec 10, 2024; the guide names no detection tool within it, and A&M-SA's own instructor-level, syllabus-based approach is not described anywhere as overridden by it. PROCESS-BASED VERIFICATION SWEEP: none published at the bounded scope searched. PROCESS: the Student Handbook's Academic Misconduct Procedures (Section 9.5.2) route a case through a faculty decision, an appeal to the Department/Program Chair (5 business days), and a further appeal to the Academic Dean or Dean of Graduate Studies, whose decision is final; the Handbook's central Section 9.4 definitions state preponderance of the evidence as "the standard of evidence used for all determinations made under the Code and Procedures." DIVERGENCE RECORDED, NOT RESOLVED, AND WORTH THE OWNER'S ATTENTION: the Academic Integrity webpage for students describes a contested case escalating to "a hearing with an Academic Integrity Hearing Board, led by the Office of the Provost," a body the current 2026-2027 Handbook's Academic Misconduct Procedures never name; the Handbook's own Chair/Dean track, not a Hearing Board, is what the Handbook calls final. Both are reproduced because neither page reconciles with the other. SCOPE CAUGHT, NOT ASSUMED: the Handbook's advisor-accompaniment right (Section 9.5.1) is titled for non-civil-rights, non-academic conduct procedures; this page does not extend it to the academic-misconduct track the Handbook itself scopes separately in Section 9.5.2, where no accompaniment or recording provision is stated. RECORD: the Handbook's Transcript Notations provision (Section 9.9.5) ties a transcript notation to suspension, dismissal, or expulsion sanctions specifically; no notation, retention period, or disclosure rule is stated for a sanction short of that (written reprimand, redo, additional work, a failing grade). OFFICE: Student Rights and Responsibilities, StudentRR@tamusa.edu, 210-784-1353, both published on the office's own Academic Integrity page. OMBUDS/ADVOCACY CHECKED AND NOT FOUND: no office titled ombudsperson, ombudsman, or student advocate was located anywhere on tamusa.edu in this review. Nothing paraphrase-pending. Traces to tools/packets/tamusa-packet.txt with zero failures. Gated in tools/fidelity-gate.txt. Archive captures pending — not requested this pass (unattended scheduled run). Reviewer: Carrie Schluter (review confirmed 2026-10-16).

2026-10-17 — 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: libguides.tamusa.edu — AI for Teachers → https://web.archive.org/web/20261017121955/https://libguides.tamusa.edu/AI-Teachers; Turnitin: Welcome — A&M-SA Research Guides → https://web.archive.org/web/20261017122039/https://libguides.tamusa.edu/turnitin; Generative AI Value Statement for TAMUSA → https://web.archive.org/web/20261017122106/https://www.tamusa.edu/academics/ai-resources/documents/Generative-AI-Value-Statement.pdf; Academic Integrity for Students → https://web.archive.org/web/20261017122128/https://www.tamusa.edu/university-policies/student-rights-and-responsibilities/academic-integrity-for-students.html; Student Handbook 2026-2027 → https://web.archive.org/web/20261017122158/https://www.tamusa.edu/university-policies/student-rights-and-responsibilities/documents/student-handbook.pdf; Student Conduct → https://web.archive.org/web/20261017122229/https://www.tamusa.edu/university-policies/student-rights-and-responsibilities/student-conduct.html.

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