Preparing for an Academic Integrity Review

Ask the Academic Integrity (AI) Office for a copy of the documentation submitted by the professor to support his/her allegation. You can request that documentation by filling out this request for documentation form (Word).

You will receive the documentation electronically (via your UCSD e-mail account) within 2 business days of your request.

You should note that if you are alleged to have cheated with other students, your name will be released to those students and their names released to you. Having all of this information will allow you to better prepare for the Review.

Once you have the allegation documentation and assistance (if you require it), prepare a statement disputing of the facts of the allegation.

• The statement should be focused and clear, and should communicate to the Academic Integrity Review Board (AIRB) the truth and facts as you know them.
• Stick to information that is relevant to the incident, rather than including your life story and past examples of your "character." Good people make bad decisions all the time, so your character is not in question. Rather, the question is whether you violated the Policy on Integrity of Scholarship.
• 7 hard copies of this statement (and any supporting documentation) is due to the Academic Integrity Office within 10 business days after the AI Office receives your review request. If you cannot meet this deadline, extensions are granted upon your request. Email your request for an extension to aic@ucsd.edu. 
• Your documentation should be referred to in your statement as Exhibit 1, 2, 3, etc. and each copy of the document should be labelled as such.

• By the 5th business day before the scheduled review (you will be notified of the review date at least 10 business days in advance), the instructor's report and supporting documentation as submitted for the briefing packet, along with your statement and documentation, will be e-mailed to you. You MUST bring a hard copy of all of this information with you the day of the Review - a hard copy will NOT be provided to you.

• Review this information carefully because there may be new material you haven't previously seen.

• The AIRB will receive both yours and the instructor's information in a full, complete briefing packet about 1/2-hour before the scheduled start time of your review.

• Your AS Advocate will help you anticipate questions the review panel will ask. Be prepared to answer questions honestly and truthfully.
• Don't be adversarial, rude, confrontational, or insulting to the professor or the AIRB members. Such a stance is more likely to hurt than help you.
• Remember that the the review isn't a trial or a legal hearing but simply an opportunity for you to tell the truth and the facts as you know them, and then for the AIRB to determine, given the available information, if it is more likely than not that you violated the Policy on Integrity of Scholarship.
• The AIRB isn't bound by the same procedural and evidentiary rules as decision-makers in courts of law.
• NOTE: arguments of "intent" (i.e., "I didn't mean to") or ignorance (i.e., "I didn't know") are irrelevant
• Do not feel that you have to dress up. The members of the panel will be in their normal, everyday clothes, and they expect you to be in the same. Dressing up in a suit is unnecessary and will not change the outcome of the review.