Examinations
One purpose of examinations is to benefit students. Examinations make more memorable the structure and materials of the course, satisfy the need for definite goals and provide an opportunity to exercise knowledge and skill in the subject. They are experiences in which students can learn about the subject and themselves.

In their syllabi, instructors specify examinations of a kind and number that are, in their judgment, appropriate to the needs of the students and to the objectives and conditions of the course. Final examinations are required in every course and are administered during final-examination week at times and places scheduled by the registrar.

Academic misconduct
Faculty and students alike have rights and responsibilities for learning, teaching and scholarship within the entire college community. Academic functions are characterized by reasoned discourse, intellectual honesty, mutual respect and openness to constructive change. Individuals must remain active in avoiding violations of academic ethics.

Infractions do occur, however. In order to show all persons how infractions are handled in a way that respects rights and punishes violators, Canisius College publishes this statement concerning academic misconduct.

Prohibited actions
The following categories of academic misconduct are prohibited: 

  1. Cheating. Cheating includes, but is not limited to:
    a. giving or receiving answers or using any materials or aids pertinent to examinations or course assignments without permission of instructor;
    b. any alteration of academic records;
    c. unauthorized possession of examinations    .
  2. Plagiarism. Plagiarism is offering the work of someone  else as one’s own. This may range from isolated formulas,  sentences, or paragraphs to entire articles copied from  books, periodicals, speeches or the writings of other  students. Honesty requires that any work or materials  taken from another source for either written or oral use must be acknowledged. Any student who fails to give credit for ideas or materials obtained from another source is guilty of plagiarism.
  3. Obtaining without permission, manipulating or interfering with any academic work of another student.
  4. Buying or selling term papers, examinations or other written assignments, or any part of them.
  5. Aiding or abetting the conduct in sections (1) to (4).
  6. Attempting to engage in any of the conduct in sections (1) to (5)
Procedures for handling academic misconduct
  1. A faculty member may charge a student in his/her course with academic misconduct. After the student has been informed of the charge and the evidence upon which it  is based and has been given an opportunity to present a  defense or explanation, the faculty member shall issue a  finding and impose a penalty within the course.
  2. The student may accept the penalty or choose to appeal. The student may appeal the finding or the penalty to the chair of the faculty member’s department within ten calendar days. Each party will present his case to the chair, who will then render a decision.
  3. The student and the faculty member may accept the decision of the chair or either of them may appeal the  matter to the appropriate academic dean within ten calendar days. (The appropriate academic dean is the dean of the school in which the course is offered:
    Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dean of the Wehle School of Business, or Dean of Education and Human Services.) Each party will present his case to the dean or his/her designate, who shall then render a decision.
  4. At either stage of appeal, the chair, the dean or his/her  designate may dismiss the charge, affirm the charge and  penalty, or affirm the charge but change the penalty.
  5. At any time after a student has been charged with academic misconduct, but before the dean or his/her designate has rendered a final decision, the student may request a college ombudsman to facilitate an informal resolution to the problem. The resolution may include a penalty. After a student has been charged with academic misconduct, he/she mayrequest the assistance of another member of the college community in presenting an explanation or defense to the faculty member, chair, dean, or his/her designate.
Penalties
The penalties that may be imposed upon a student found responsible for academic misconduct include, but are not limited to, the following:

If consultation with the dean of the student's school reveals no prior offense:

  1. The student’s grade in the assignment or examination in question will be a “D”. At the discretion of the instructor, the assignment or examination may be repeated in a different form. In addition:
  2. The student may receive a failing grade in the course.
  3. The instructor may devise a penalty appropriate to the circumstances.
If a prior offense is on record:
  1. The course grade should be a “D”.
  2. The student’s dean may impose a penalty outside the course, including the recommendation of suspension or expulsion. The Vice President for Academic Affairs makes all final decisions regarding suspension or expulsion for reasons of  academic misconduct.
Record keeping
  1. In all instances of academic misconduct in which a final penalty has been imposed, the person imposing the penalty shall notify the dean of the student’s school for inclusion of the matter in the student’s confidential file. This file enables the dean to determine when a student has engaged in more than one act of academic misconduct. Academic misconduct files are maintained in the Student Records Office.
  2. After a student graduates, the confidential file concerning the misconduct shall be destroyed. However, if the student is expelled for academic dishonesty, the file will be retained.
Academic forgiveness policy
This policy is intended to assist former Canisius College students whose cumulative average is below 2.0. It is to be used to assist students that have reapplied to the college and demonstrate personal growth and motivation to accomplish their educational goals. This policy will allow for up to thirty (30) credit hours of course work with grades of F or FX to be removed from the calculation of the cumulative average.

A period of not less than five years must have passed prior to the student’s readmission to the college. The student must submit a petition for academic forgiveness with the application to the college. The appropriate associate dean will meet with the student, review the petition, and make a recommendation. No acceptance decision will be made without the recommendation of the associate dean after a review of the petition.

The admissions office will then process the application and notify the student of the decision. Once the associate dean has made a recommendation, a memo will be sent to the student records office indicating that the student has been approved for academic forgiveness. The memo will list the courses that should be removed from the student’s cumulative average. The student records office will adjust the student’s record to reflect the forgiveness policy. The courses and grades will remain a part of the student’s academic record. Each course will have an “X” listed after the course number. This will indicate the course is part of the academic forgiveness policy. A notation will also appear on the transcript indicating the student was approved for academic forgiveness.

The student must maintain a minimum semester average of 2.50 and a minimum cumulative average of 2.00. The student must meet with the department chair of the intended major. The department chair will review the academic record and make recommendations about what courses from five or more years ago will count toward completion of current major requirements. The student must take a minimum of ten (10) courses at Canisius College to be eligible for a degree. The student will be required to meet with the appropriate associate dean at least twice during the first semester. Progress reports will be required for students during their first semester after academic forgiveness is granted. 

An agreement between the associate dean and the student will be completed in writing. The agreement will outline all the requirements for the student to be approved for academic forgiveness. This will also include but not be limited to the minimum semester and cumulative average requirements, the required appointments for progress review and course restrictions or limitations for the first semester. Failure of the student to meet the forgiveness agreement will result in automatic dismissal from the college.

Grades
Grades inform students of the level of performance they have achieved in a course. Grades are means whereby students may come to know and appreciate their capacities and abilities. Instructors are responsible for specifying the performances required in their courses; students are responsible for meeting the requirements specified.

Grades earned by students at Canisius College reflect:

  1. The extent to which the requirements specified in the course syllabus have been met.
  2. The degree to which the requirements completed exhibit mastery of the subject or skills which are the object of the course.
  3. Other criteria specified by the instructor at the beginning of the course, criteria such as, but not limited to, attendance at lectures or other course functions, projects voluntarily  undertaken in excess of specified requirements, correct use of oral or written English and contribution to discussion of other course activities.
Quality points
The quality-point average indicates the student’s general scholastic average and is a measure of the quality of his or her work, just as credit hours are the measure of its extent. Points are assigned as follows for each semester hour completed:

Grade A: 4.0 points Grade C+: 2.3 points
Grade A-: 3.7 points Grade C: 2.0 points
Grade B+: 3.3 points           Grade C-: 1.7 points
Grade B: 3.0 points Grade D: 0 points
Grade B-: 2.7 points

A student’s Q.P.A. is obtained by dividing the total number of quality points by the total number of credit hours carried.

Other grades authorized by the deans include the following:

              W – Authorized withdrawal from a course. 
                    The description of withdrawal procedures is in a preceding   
                    section of this chapter.
               I–   Incomplete.

Final course grades cannot in normal circumstances be altered after they have been recorded by the office of student records. The appropriate dean’s permission is required if a final grade is altered. Final grades are issued by mail at the conclusion of each semester by the registrar.

Students who are dissatisfied with their grade in a course may repeat the course once (exceptions may be approved by the appropriate associate dean in consultation with the department chair). In such cases both grades will be entered in the student’s record, but, for the purpose of computing cumulative Q.P.A.’s, only the second grade will be used for the calculation. 

Incomplete grade
A student who, for serious and well defined reasons, has failed to fulfill all requirements of a course or has failed to take the final examination may petition an instructor to request a grade of “I,” indicating Incomplete Performance, from the appropriate dean.

Only the appropriate dean may grant an incomplete grade. It will not be granted to a student whose only reason is excessive absence during the semester or failure to complete the work of the course before the close of the semester without an exceptionally good reason. Examples of such good reasons might be prolonged illness or hospitalization during the semester, serious illness at the time of the final examination or other unusual circumstances.

An incomplete grade, when granted, is merely temporary and will automatically be changed to a “D” grade if a final grade is not submitted to the student records office by the end of the academic semester following the semester in which it was incurred. A student seeking a further extension must petition the appropriate dean.

Grade grievance procedure
Occasions may arise when a student does not agree with the grade he/she has received in a course. When this happens, the question of whether the grade should be reconsidered is addressed in two stages.

A. The initial stage in the grievance procedure is as follows:

  1. The student first contacts the course instructor to discuss the grade in question within four weeks of the start of the semester (regular academic session) immediately following that in which the grade was awarded. If the  instructor agrees that the grade in question was inaccurate, a grade change is processed by the instructor.
  2. If the student and the instructor cannot agree on the appropriateness of the grade in question, the student may contact the chair of the instructor’s department, in writing, within ten working days after the meeting with the instructor. If a mutually agreeable decision is made through mediation conducted by the chair, the instructor will submit the agreed-upon grade and the process is completed. If there is no outcome that is mutually acceptable to the student and the instructor, the process may continue. If the instructor is also the chair, then Step 2 is omitted and the process goes to step 3.
  3. The student may appeal the decision to the appropriate dean’s office within ten working days after the mediation process is complete. The dean shall collect written views and other pertinent material from the involved instructor, student and chair, as well as consult with any other individuals deemed necessary. The dean shall render the decision whether the grade should be reconsidered.
  4. The decision of the dean to reconsider or not to reconsider the grade in question is final. If the decision is to reconsider the grade, the procedure outlined in Part B below is  followed. If the decision is not to reconsider the grade, the original grade cannot be changed. Cases which are  referred to the procedure in Part B can be withdrawn only with the consent of the student, instructor, department chair and dean – and after first informing all parties involved.
B. The final stage in the grievance procedure is as follows:
  1. If the dean feels that the reconsideration of the grade in  question is appropriate, a panel of tenured faculty who have not been involved in the process described above is formed from the department in question. The panel must be formed within ten days of the dean’s decision. If the department does not have a minimum of four members, it will be expanded to include all the tenured members of the departments within the division (Natural Science, Social Science, Humanities, Business or Education) of  which the department in question is a member.
  2. A three-member panel will be selected as follows. The dean,faculty member and student involved will each select one member of the panel from the designated pool.
  3. The panel will review all appropriate material and make a determination about the grade change. This review must be completed within thirty days of the formation of the panel. The panel has the authority to assign a grade for the course in question. That grade may be the same grade as assigned by the instructor or a higher or lower grade, according to the panel’s judgment. The student and the instructor will be informed of the panel’s decision and, when applicable, the authorized grade change will be  submitted to the registrar.
  4. The decision of the panel may be appealed by the original instructor or the student to the vice president for academic affairs only in the following extraordinary circumstances:

    a. The grade grievance procedure was not followed.
    b. Prejudice was manifested against either the student or the instructor.
    c. New, relevant information was introduced.

    The appeal must be brought within thirty days of the panel’s decision. The burden of proof for the appeal rests with the individual bringing the appeal.
  5. If the Vice President for Academic Affairs believes that the decision of the panel should be reviewed a three-member  appeal panel will be appointed from the pool of tenured  faculty as described in Step B; the vice president, the faculty member and the student involved will each select one  member. No member of the original panel may serve on the appeal panel. The appeal panel will follow the procedure in Step B-3, including completion of its task within thirty days of the formation of the panel. The decision of the appeal  panel is final.
Probation and disqualification
The regulations regarding probation and disqualification vary from one program to another. Specific information may be obtained from the associate deans or program directors.