Information for Faculty
Contents
How to Get Help
Contact us with any questions you might have about Accepting Responsibility (AR). For higher-level help, contact the Bowers CIS Associate Dean for Education, the Dean of Faculty, or the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.
How to Join the Pilot
- Fill out the course application form before the semester begins. We will notify you if your course is selected to participate.
- Include the following language in your syllabus:
This course is participating in Accepting Responsibility (AR), which is a pilot supplement to the Cornell Code of Academic Integrity (AI). For details about the AR process and how it supplements the AI Code, see the AR website.
- Tell your class, perhaps in the first lecture, about the AR pilot. You could use these slides about AR as a starting point.
How to Use the Accepting Responsibility Process
Detect a Violation
First, detect a possible Academic Integrity (AI) violation as you normally would.
Investigate and Find Evidence
Second, investigate to determine whether you have clear and convincing evidence that a violation has occurred. That evidence could be based entirely on written work that students have submitted. Or, you can investigate further. The AI Code Faculty Guidelines permit you to hold informal discussions with students. For example, you could email them or have a conversation in your office to ask questions about their work. If you cannot find clear and convincing evidence, then you should not proceed with Accepting Responsibility (AR). Instead, follow the AI Code and hold a Primary Hearing.
Choose Whether to Use AR
Third, decide whether you want to use AR or AI to proceed. You are not required to offer AR to the student. You should use AR only if you have clear and convincing evidence, and you believe that a limited grade penalty combined with the AR workshop is an appropriate outcome for the event.
Offer AR to the Student
Fourth, send the student the AR Instructor-to-Student email. (You will receive a template after your course is enrolled in the pilot.) As part of the email, you will need to briefly document your evidence and assign a provisional grade penalty of up to a zero on the assignment. You must CC acceptingresponsibility@cornell.edu on the offer email.
The student must make a decision within three business days whether to sign an agreement to proceed with AR, or to revert to the standard AI Primary Hearing process. If the student does sign the agreement, there is a two-day cooling off period during which the student is permitted to change their mind and cancel the agreement. So it may take up to a week for you to learn the result. During this time, you are free to continue holding informal discussions with the student, and/or to refer them to the Information for Students page on this website.
Receive the Student’s Decision
Fifth, if the student elects to accept responsibility, then the AR Recorder (who is faculty/staff in OVPUE) will check to make sure the student is eligible — that is, that the student has no prior AR or AI violation on record. If so, the AR Recorder will inform you and the student that the AR process is proceeding.
If the student attempts to accept responsibility but the AR Recorder discovers that the student is ineligible, then the AR Recorder will inform the student that they must change their choice to a Primary Hearing. You will not be told why the student is choosing a Primary Hearing — that is, the prior violation will not be disclosed to you by the AR Recorder. You will proceed as in the next paragraph.
If the student elects to use the standard AI Primary Hearing process, the AR process is concluded. You should write a Primary Hearing letter and continue according to the AI Code, including giving the student their right to a week to prepare for the Primary Hearing. You are free to consider higher grade penalties as a result of the Primary Hearing process.
Receive the Workshop Result
Finally, the AR Recorder will contact you to report whether the student completed the AR workshop requirement. This will generally occur within two weeks.
If the student completed the workshop, then you should record the grade penalty you provided on the AR Instructor Report form. The AR process is concluded. You are free to continue holding informal discussions with the student if you wish to follow-up with them about the violation or the workshop.
If the student failed to complete the workshop, then the student is in default and the AR process is concluded. You should write a Primary Hearing letter and proceed according to the AI Code, including giving the student their right to a week to prepare for the Primary Hearing. You are free to consider higher grade penalties as a result of the Primary Hearing process.
Additional Guidance about the AR Process
Process Subject to Change
The Accepting Responsibility process may change as the pilot is developed. This page may be updated with new information throughout the pilot.
Handling Group Work
You should investigate each student’s involvement individually before extending the possibility of AR to anyone in the group. You are allowed to investigate before making a decision about AR versus AI. For example, you can email the students (or call them to your office) to ask who contributed which parts of an assignment, or to ask whether they are already aware of any violations. You can then charge students appropriately.
If the only conclusion you can reach from your investigation is that someone in the group is guilty — but you don’t know who — then you should proceed with AI Primary Hearings for all group members, rather than AR. Use the hearings to continue the investigation and uncover whatever clear and convincing evidence you can. You should hold all necessary AI Primary Hearings before completing an AR Instructor Report Form for any of the group members. What you learn at hearings may inform your choices about AR.
In the end, you should offer AR to a student only if you have clear and convincing evidence that student themself has committed a violation, which could include knowingly allowing another student to commit a violation.
If no coherent narrative emerges that establishes which group members are at fault, you should be cautious about extending AR as a possibility. It would not be clear what responsibility is actually being accepted. Proceeding with the Primary Hearing process is the better choice.
FAQs for Faculty
Why are we doing this pilot?
We want to investigate a model for academic integrity in which educational outcomes are prioritized over punitive outcomes. We also want to reduce the procedural burden for faculty when they are pursuing small, first-time offenses.
How can I register my course to participate in the pilot?
Fill out this registration form.
Do I have to offer Accepting Responsibility to a student?
No, you do not have to offer Accepting Responsibility to a student, nor do you have to agree to it if a student requests it. You may choose to pursue an Academic Integrity case if you believe that Accepting Responsibility is not an appropriate outcome for the violation.
What kind of evidence do I need to provide when reporting a violation to Accepting Responsibility?
Your evidence must be “clear and convincing”, which is the same standard of evidence as in Academic Integrity.
If I'm not sure whether a student is guilty, should I just offer them Accepting Responsibility and hope they take it?
Absolutely not. You should only offer Accepting Responsibility when you have clear and convincing evidence that the student is guilty. You will have to document that evidence on the AR Instructor Report Form.
How will I know whether or not a student has a prior violation, hence is eligible for Accepting Responsibility?
To protect the student's confidentiality, you won't be told about prior violations. Instead, after you submit the AR Instructor Report form the AR Recorder will check for any prior violations. (OVPUE works with the College AIHBs to provide this check.) If there are any, the student will be told by the AR Recorder that they must choose the AI Primary Hearing process. It will be indistinguishable to you whether the student chose a Primary Hearing because of a prior violation, or because of some other reason such as wanting to prove their innocence.
What happens if a student has two or more accusations at the same time?
The first instructor that files the AR Instructor Report form will take precedence over other instructors. Other instructors will have to initiate a Primary Hearing.
What happens if the student doesn’t want to accept responsibility?
You will hold a Primary Hearing as usual under the Code of Academic Integrity.
Can I refer a graduate student to Accepting Responsibility?
This pilot is geared toward undergraduates. Graduate students may have a different set of professional expectations that need to be addressed. We recommend that you contact us prior to offering Accepting Responsibility to a graduate student.
With Accepting Responsibility, where is the disincentive to cheat?
The assignment penalty (up to a zero) and the workshop attendance are disincentives, albeit smaller disincentives than the maximum penalties provided under the Code of Academic Integrity. Further, students have imperfect information about the future: whether you will offer the AR option in their case, or whether it would be more beneficial to cheat on a future assignment than the current assignment.
What happens in the workshop?
We talk about values, situations, habits and skills. It’s a combination of individual assessment and small group interaction.
What if a student does not attend the workshop?
You will be notified. You should then initiate a Primary Hearing.
What if new evidence later exonerates a student who already accepted responsibility?
If the new evidence leads you to believe the student was not guilty, you should undo the grade penalty and contact the AR Recorder to update the student's record. The student will remain ineligible for AR in the future, because they already attended the workshop.