Article i: Definitions

The term "Parkland College" means Parkland College District 505. The term “Parkland College” includes all land, building, facilities, and other property in the possession of or owned, used, or controlled by Parkland College (including adjacent streets and sidewalks).

The term “student” includes all persons taking courses at Parkland College, both full-time and part-time, credit or noncredit.  Parkland "student" status begins upon registration for courses in their first semester of enrollment.* Each "student" shall be responsible for their conduct through the actual awarding of a degree, which may include conduct occurring before classes begin or after classes end, as well as during the academic year and during periods between terms of actual enrollment, and even conduct not discovered until after a degree is awarded. Persons who are not officially enrolled for a particular term but who have a continuing relationship with Parkland College are considered “students”.

*Note: for the purposes for Parkland College's Sexual Discrimination, Harassment, and Misconduct Policy student status begins at the time of admission. 

The term “faculty member” means any person hired by Parkland College to conduct classroom activities, including counselors and librarians who hold faculty status.

The term “Parkland College official” includes and person employed by Parkland College, performing assigned administrative or professional responsibilities.

The term “member of Parkland College community” includes any person who is a student, faculty member, Parkland College official, any other person employed by Parkland College, third parties working at Parkland College, or visitors to Parkland College facilities. 

The term "complainant” means any person who submits a charge alleging that a student violated the Student Conduct Code. When a a member of the campus community believes that they have been a victim of a student’s misconduct, the respondent will have the same rights under this Student Conduct Code as are provided to the complainant.

The term “respondent” means any student accused of violating the Student Conduct Code.

The term “organization” means a collective of members of the campus community who have received formal recognition by the Parkland College Student Government or by Parkland College itself. 

The term “Student Conduct Committee” means any person or persons authorized by the Vice President for Student Services or Chair of the Student Affairs Committee to determine whether a student has violated the Student Conduct Code and to recommend the imposition of sanctions. The Vice President for Student Services and the Chair of the Student Affairs Committee are not permitted to serve on the Student Conduct Committee. 

The term “Student Conduct Advisor” means a Parkland College official authorized on a case-by-case basis to act under the authority of the Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Services to administer the processes and policies associated with Student Conduct Code. The Dean of Students may authorize the student conduct advisor to serve simultaneously as a Student Conduct Advisor and the sole member or one of the members of a Student Conduct Committee. Nothing shall prevent 1) the Dean of Students from authorizing the same student conduct advisor to impose sanctions in all cases or 2) the Dean of Students to serve as the Student Conduct Advisor. 

The term “Appellate Board” means any person/persons authorized by the Dean of Students, Vice President for Student Services, or Chair of the Student Conduct Committee to consider an appeal from a Student Conduct Committee’s determination that a student has violated the Student Conduct Code or from the sanctions imposed by the Student Conduct Advisor.

The term “shall” is used in the mandatory sense. This term requires action.

Example: "The student shall go outside." This requires the student to go outside. 

The term “may” is used in the permissive sense. This term allows action without requirement for that action. 

Example: "The student may go outside." This allows the student to go outside but does not require the student to go outside. 

The Dean of Students is the person designated by the Parkland College Vice President for Student Services to be responsible for the administration of the Student Conduct Code.

The term “policy” is defined as the written regulations of Parkland College as found in, but not limited to, the Parkland College Policy and Procedure Manual, Parkland College Student Handbook, Student Conduct Code, Parkland College Catalog, and departmental policies. 

The term “cheating” is used to reference any violations to Parkland's Academic Honesty standards. This includes, but is not limited to:

Cheating 

• Using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic activity. 
•  Submitting assignments, homework, and examinations that are not a student’s own work or for which a student received unauthorized help.
• Copying the work of another, or allowing another to copy one’s own work, without proper acknowledgment. 

Fabrication 

• Falsifying or inventing any information or citation in an academic activity. 
• Falsifying or inventing any information to gain an academic advantage. 

Plagiarism 

• Presenting someone else’s work or ideas as one’s own, by incorporating it without full acknowledgment. All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed, visual, or electronic form, is covered under this definition. Plagiarism may be intentional or reckless, or unintentional. 

Unauthorized Collaboration 

• Work submitted to fulfill an assignment not specifically identified as a group activity must be substantially the work of the author. Instructors should provide guidelines to students to maintain the academic integrity of these collaborative activities.