Rights & Responsibilities

FERPA | Disability Services | Plagiarism | Grievances

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that was put in place to protect the educational records of students, including those enrolled in distance or correspondence education courses or programs. In most cases, information from a student’s record cannot be released without prior written consent of the student.

FERPA affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. They are:

The right to inspect and review the student's education records within 45 days of the day the university receives a written request for access.
The right to request the amendment of the student's education records that the student believes is inaccurate or misleading.
The right to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.
The right to file a complaint with the U. S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by Texas A&M International University to comply with the requirements of FERPA.

Respondus FERPA Statement

For more information contact the Office of the University Registrar or visit their page for more information.

Office of the University Registrar
Senator Judith Zaffirini Success Center, Room 121
5201 University Blvd., Laredo, TX 78041-1900
Phone: (956) 326-2250
Fax: (956) 326-2163
E-mail: registrar@tamiu.edu

Disability Services for Students (DSS)

Disability Services for Students promotes a supportive learning community to empower students with disabilities to accomplish their academic goals by ensuring accessibility to University programs. We aim to foster greater awareness both of, and for, persons with disabilities in our multilingual, multicultural international environment.

Student Center, Room 118
5201 University Blvd., Laredo, TX 78041-1900
Phone: (956) 326-3086

Plagiarism and Cheating

Plagiarism is the presentation of someone else’s work as your own.

When you borrow someone else’s facts, ideas, or opinions and put them entirely in your own words, you must acknowledge that these thoughts are not your own by immediately citing the source in your paper. Failure to do this is plagiarism.
When you also borrow someone else’s words (short phrases, clauses, or sentences), you must enclose the copied words in quotation marks as well as citing the source. Failure to do this is plagiarism.
When you present someone else’s paper or exam (stolen, borrowed, or bought) as your own, you have committed a clearly intentional form of intellectual theft and have put your academic future in jeopardy. This is the worst form of plagiarism.

Here is another explanation from the 2010, sixth edition of the Manual of The American Psychological Association (APA):

Plagiarism: Researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due. Quotations marks should be used to indicate the exact words of another. Each time you paraphrase another author (i.e., summarize a passage or rearrange the order of a sentence and change some of the words), you need to credit the source in the text.

The key element of this principle is that authors do not present the work of another as if it were their own words. This can extend to ideas as well as written words. If authors model a study after one done by someone else, the originating author should be given credit. If the rationale for a study was suggested in the Discussion section of someone else's article, the person should be given credit. Given the free exchange of ideas, which is very important for the health of intellectual discourse, authors may not know where an idea for a study originated. If authors do know, however, they should acknowledge the source; this includes personal communications. (pp. 15-16)

Consult the Writing Center or a recommended guide to documentation and research such as the Manual of the APA or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for guidance on proper documentation. If you still have doubts concerning proper documentation, seek advice from your instructor prior to submitting a final draft.

Use of work in Two or More Courses: You may not submit work completed in one course for a grade in a second course unless you receive explicit permission to do so by the instructor of the second course.

Penalties for Plagiarism: Should a faculty member discover that a student has committed plagiarism, the student should receive a grade of 'F' in that course and the matter will be referred to the Honor Council for possible disciplinary action. The faculty member, however, may elect to give freshmen and sophomore students a “zero” for the assignment and to allow them to revise the assignment up to a grade of “F” (50%) if they believe that the student plagiarized out of ignorance or carelessness and not out of an attempt to deceive in order to earn an unmerited grade. This option should not be available to juniors, seniors, or graduate students, who cannot reasonably claim ignorance of documentation rules as an excuse. Caution: Be very careful what you upload to Turnitin or send to your professor for evaluation. Whatever you upload for evaluation will be considered your final, approved draft. If it is plagiarized, you will be held responsible. The excuse that “it was only a draft” will not be accepted. Caution: Also, do not share your electronic files with others. If you do, you are responsible for the possible consequences. If another student takes your file of a paper and changes the name to his or her name and submits it and you also submit the paper, we will hold both of you responsible for plagiarism. It is impossible for us to know with certainty who wrote the paper and who stole it. And, of course, we cannot know if there was collusion between you and the other student in the matter.

Penalties for Cheating: Should a faculty member discover a student cheating on an exam or quiz or other class project, the student should receive a “zero” for the assignment and not be allowed to make the assignment up. The incident should be reported to the chair of the department and to the Honor Council. If the cheating is extensive, however, or if the assignment constitutes a major grade for the course (e.g., a final exam), or if the student has cheated in the past, the student should receive an “F” in the course, and the matter should be referred to the Honor Council. Under no circumstances should a student who deserves an “F” in the course be allowed to withdraw from the course with a “W.”

Student Right of Appeal: Faculty will notify students immediately via the student’s TAMIU e-mail account that they have submitted plagiarized work. Students have the right to appeal a faculty member’s charge of academic dishonesty by notifying the TAMIU Honor Council of their intent to appeal as long as the notification of appeal comes within 5 business days of the faculty member’s e-mail message to the student. The Student Handbook provides details.

Grievances Against Students or Faculty

File a Grievance against Students (Section 8.01 of Student Handbook):

Any member of the University community has the right to file a grievance against a student that is in violation of the Student Code of Conduct. Grievances should be filed in writing within fifteen (15) University working days of the discovery of the alleged infraction to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Engagement via reporting system (http://www.tamiu.edu/reportit). The time lines for the grievance process may be extended for good cause shown or upon the unilateral discretion of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Engagement.

File a Grievance against Faculty (Section 4.03 of Student Handbook):

Conflicts between faculty members and students that do not relate to faculty decisions regarding such academic issues as course policies and grades will be considered the subject of grievances. The process for resolving grievances between faculty members and students is as follows.

Before a grievance is filed, the aggrieved faculty member or student must make a good faith effort to meet with the other party about his or her concerns. If the other party is unwilling to meet, if the aggrieved party has reasonable concerns about his or her physical safety, or if the meeting produces no resolution to the conflict, then the aggrieved party may initiate a grievance by following the steps outlined below.
If the grievant is a faculty member, he or she will file a written complaint with the Office of Student Affairs. If the grievant is a student, he or she will file a written complaint with the faculty member’s department or division chair. In either case, both parties will receive a written acknowledgement of the complaint within five working days.
The student and faculty member will meet with the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs or designee, and the faculty member’s chair. Both the faculty member and the student must be present, unless one party waives that right. This meeting will take place within five working days of the acknowledgement of the grievance.
If the complaint remains unresolved after meeting with the department chair and the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs or designee, then within five working days of the meeting with the chair and the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs or designee, both the student and the faculty member will meet with either the Dean of the respective college (or academic administrator to whom the chair reports) if the grievant is a student, or with the Vice President Student Success if the grievant is a faculty member. Both the faculty member and the student must be present, unless one party waives that right.
If the complaint remains unresolved after that meeting, it will then be heard within five working days by an ad-hoc committee consisting of the faculty member’s department or division chair, the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs or designee, a member of the Student Government Association selected by the President of the Student Government Association, a member of the Faculty Senate selected by the Faculty Senate President, and a person selected by the non-grieving party from his or her peers. The chair of the committee will be the Associate Vice President of Student Affairs (or the Vice President Student Success’s designate) if the grievant is a faculty member, or the department chair if the grievant is a student. The chair of the committee will ensure that the committee is formed appropriately and meets on schedule. After hearing from both sides in the dispute and examining whatever documentation has been provided by the parties involved, the ad hoc committee will make its recommendation in writing to either the Provost or the Vice President Student Success, as appropriate. Both parties involved in the complaint should receive the written recommendation within three working days after the committee concludes its deliberations.
The Provost or the Vice President Student Success will notify in writing both parties of his or her final decision to resolve the grievance within three working days of receiving the committee’s recommendation.

Office of Information Technology
Instructional Technology & Distance Education Services
Killam Library, Room 259
Phone: (956) 326-2792
Fax: (956) 326-2299
E-mail: elearning@tamiu.edu