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Standards of Student Conduct

A student enrolling in Allan Hancock College may rightfully expect that the faculty and administrators will maintain an environment in which there is freedom to learn. Therefore, appropriate conditions and opportunities must be provided for all students to pursue their education within a safe and secure environment. As members of the college community, students should be encouraged to develop the capacity for critical judgment; to engage in a sustained and independent search for truth; and to exercise their right to free inquiry and free speech in a responsible, nonviolent manner.

Students shall respect and obey civil and criminal law and shall be subject to legal penalties for violation of laws of the city, county, state and nation in the same manner and to the same extent as any other person. Student conduct at Allan Hancock College must also conform to district and college rules and regulations. The same standards of student conduct apply whether a student is physically present in a campus facility, is engaged in a distance learning course, or is using electronic (e.g. web-based) services of the district.

Any behavior that interferes with the instructional, administrative, or service functions of the district will be considered to be disruptive and will be subject to disciplinary action.

Allan Hancock College Board Policy 5500

The Superintendent/President shall establish procedures for the imposition of discipline on students in accordance with the requirements for due process of the federal and state law and regulations.

The procedures shall clearly define the conduct that is subject to discipline and shall identify potential disciplinary actions, including but not limited to the removal, suspension, or expulsion of a student.

The Board of Trustees shall consider any recommendation from the Superintendent/ President for expulsion.  The Board shall consider an expulsion recommendation in closed session unless the student requests that the matter be considered in a public meeting.  Final action by the Board on the expulsion shall be taken at a public meeting.

The Standards of Student Conduct and disciplinary procedures shall be made widely available to students through the college catalog and other means.

Allan Hancock College Administrative Procedure 5500

Definitions: The following conduct shall constitute good cause for discipline, including but not limited to the removal, suspension, or expulsion of a student:

  1. Causing, attempting to cause, or threatening to cause physical injury to another person.
  2. Possession, sale, or otherwise furnishing any firearm, knife, explosive, or other dangerous object, including but not limited to any facsimile firearm, knife, or explosive, unless, in the case of possession of any object of this type, the student has obtained written permission to possess the item from a District employee, which is concurred in by the Superintendent/President or designee.
  3. Unlawful possession, use, sale, offer to sell, or furnishing, or being under the influence of, any controlled substance listed in Health and Safety Code Sections 11053 et seq., an alcoholic beverage, or an intoxicant of any kind; or unlawful possession of, or offering, arranging or negotiating the sale of any drug paraphernalia, as defined in Health and Safety Code Section 11014.5.
  4. Committing or attempting to commit robbery or extortion.
  5. Encouraging, attempting, assisting, and soliciting another to do any act, which would subject a student to expulsion, suspension or other discipline pursuant to this procedure and related policy.
  6. Causing or attempting to cause damage to District property or to private property on campus.
  7. Stealing or attempting to steal District property or private property on campus, or knowingly receiving stolen District property or private property on campus.
  8. Willful or persistent smoking in any area where smoking has been prohibited by law or by regulation of the college or the District.
  9. Committing sexual harassment as defined by law or by District policies and procedures.
  10. Engaging in harassing or discriminatory behavior based on disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other status protected by law, on or off College premises, of the person or property of any member of the College community or members of his/her family or the threat of any such physical abuse at any College authorized or governed activity.
  11. Engaging in intimidating conduct, bullying, or hazing against another student, staff or faculty through words or actions, including direct physical or verbal assaults, such as teasing or name-calling; social isolation or manipulation; and cyberbullying.
  12. Willful misconduct that results in injury or death to a student or to District personnel or which results in cutting, defacing, or other injury to any real or personal property owned by the District or on campus.
  13. Disruptive behavior, willful disobedience, habitual profanity or vulgarity, or the open and persistent defiance of the authority of, or persistent abuse of, college personnel, or failure to identify oneself or furnishing false identification for just cause when requested to do so by College officials acting in the performance of their duties.
  14. Dishonesty; forgery; alteration or misuse of District documents, records or identification; or knowingly furnishing false information to the District.
  15. Unauthorized entry upon or use of District facilities.
  16. Computer related crimes or unauthorized, abusive, or violation of the District’s acceptable use policy or procedure including violations of software licensing agreements.
  17. Lewd, indecent or obscene conduct or expression on District-owned or controlled property, or at District sponsored or supervised functions.
  18. Sexual assault, defined as actual or attempted sexual contact with another person without that person’s consent, regardless of the victim’s affiliation with the college, including, but not limited to, any of the following: (1) Intentional touching of another person’s intimate parts without that person’s affirmative consent or other intentional sexual contact with another person without that person’s affirmative consent; (2) Coercing, forcing, or attempting to coerce or force a person to touch another person’s intimate parts without that person’s affirmative consent; and (3) Rape, which includes penetration, no matter how slight, without the person’s affirmative consent of either of the following: (A) the vagina or anus of a person by any body part of another person or by an object; (B) the mouth of a person by a sex organ of another person.
  19. Sexual exploitation, defined as a person taking sexual advantage of another person for the benefit of anyone other than that person without that person’s consent, regardless of the victim’s affiliation with the college, including, but not limited to, any of the following: (1) Prostituting another person; (2) Recording images, including video or photograph, or audio of another person’s sexual activity, intimate body parts, or nakedness without the person’s affirmative consent; (3) Distributing images, including video or photograph or audio of another person’s sexual activity, intimate body parts, or nakedness, if the individual distributing the images or audio knows or should have  known  that  the  person  depicted  in  the  images  or  audio  did  not affirmatively consent to the disclosure and objected to the disclosure; and (4) Viewing, another person’s sexual activity, intimate body parts, or nakedness in a place where that person would have reasonable expectation of privacy, without that person’s affirmative consent, and for the purpose of arousing or satisfying sexual desire.
  20. Committing sexual harassment as defined by law or by District policies and procedures, which may include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature, that is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive to limit the ability of a member of the college community (student, faculty, staff) to participate in or benefit from an education program or activity, or to create a hostile or abusive educational
  21. Stalking or repeatedly following or harassing another person through conduct composed of a series of acts that seriously alarm, annoy, torment, or terrorize in a manner that threatens to place that person in reasonable fear for their safety or the safety of their immediate family
  22. Engaging in expression which is obscene, libelous or slanderous, or which so incites students as to create a clear and present danger of the commission of unlawful acts on District premises,
  23. Violations of Board policies, administrative procedures, or campus regulations including, but not limited to, campus regulations concerning student organizations, use of District facilities, gambling and hazing.
  24. The use of any electronic listening or recording device in a classroom or learning environment without the prior consent of the instructor, except as necessary to provide reasonable auxiliary aids or academic adjustments to disabled students.
  25. Presentation of academic work through fraudulent or deceptive means in order to obtain credit for this Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to:

 Cheating - failure to observe the expressed procedures of an academic exercise, including but not limited to:

  • Unauthorized use of commercial "research" services which are not the student’s own work.
  • Providing information to others without instructor’s permission or allowing the opportunity for others to obtain information that provides the recipient with an advantage on an exam or assignment.
  • Unauthorized communication with fellow students during a quiz or
  • Copying material from another student’s quiz or
  • Permitting another student to copy from a quiz or
  • Permitting a person to take a quiz, exam, or similar evaluation in lieu of the enrolled
  • Using unauthorized materials, information, or study aids (e.g., textbook, notes, data, images, formula list, dictionary, calculator, ) in any academic exercise or exam.
  • Unauthorized collaboration in providing or requesting assistance, such as sharing information on an academic exercise or
  • Unauthorized use  of  another  person’s  data  in  completing  a  computer  or  lab
  • Using computer and word processing to gain access to alter and/or use unauthorized information.
  • Altering a graded exam or assignment and requesting that it be re-graded - submission of altered work after grading, including but not limited to changing answers after an exam or assignment has been returned or submitting another’s exam as one’s own to gain

Fabrication - falsification  or  invention  of  any  information  in  an  academic  exercise, including but not limited to:

  • Fabricating or altering data to support
  • Presenting results from research that was not performed--submitting material for lab assignments, class projects or other assignments, which is wholly or partially falsified, invented or otherwise does not represent work accomplished or undertaken by the
  • Crediting source material that was not directly used for
  • Falsification, alteration or misrepresentation of official or unofficial records or documents including but not limited to academic transcripts, academic documentation, letters of recommendation, and admissions applications or related

Fraud, Misrepresentation, Lying - intentionally making an untrue statement or deceiving including but not limited to:

  • Checking into a District class, lab, center or other District resource with the intent to deceive the instructor, staff, or the
  • Checking in or checking out of a District class, lab, center or other District resource for another student.
  • Using another student’s District identification card for use in a class, lab, center or other District

Plagiarism - the presentation of another’s words, images or ideas as if they were the student’s own, including but not limited to:

  • Stealing the written, oral, artistic, or original works or efforts of others and presenting them as one’s own.
  • The submission of material, whether in part or whole, authored by another person or source (e.g., the internet, book, journal, etc.), whether that material is paraphrased, translated or copied in verbatim or near-verbatim form without properly acknowledging the source (it is the student’s responsibility to cite all sources).
  • The submission of material rewritten, in part or whole, by another person that results in the loss of the student’s original voice or ideas (i.e. while an editor or tutor may advise a student, the final submitted materials must be the work of the student, not that of the editor or tutor).
  • Translating all or any part of material from another language and presenting it as if it were the student’s own original work.
  • Unauthorized transfer and use of another person’s computer file as the student’s own.
  • Unauthorized use of another person’s data in completing a computer exercise.

Facilitating Academic Dishonesty - assisting another to commit an act of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to:

  • Taking a quiz, exam, or similar evaluation in place of another person.
  • Allowing one student to copy from another.
  • Attending a course posing as another student who is officially registered for that course.
  • Providing material or other information (e.g., a solution to homework, a project or other assignments, a copy of an exam, exam key or any test information) to another student with knowledge that such assistance could be used to violate any other sections of this procedure.
  • Distribution or use of notes or recordings based on college classes without the express written permission of the instructor for purposes other than individual or group study; this includes, but is not limited to, providing materials for distribution by services publishing class notes (This restriction on unauthorized use applies to all information distributed or in any way displayed for use in relationship to the class, whether obtained in class, via email, on the Internet or via any other media).

Students who engage in any of the above are subject to the procedures outlined in AP 5520 titled Student Discipline Procedures.

References: Education Code Sections 66300, 66301, 72122, 76030, and 78907
WASC/ACCJC Accreditation Standards I.C. 8 and 10