Washington University implemented a centralized undergraduate academic integrity process led by two full-time academic integrity coordinators at the start of the fall 2024 semester. The new integrity process replaces the previous school-specific processes to ensure consistency in the University’s handling of alleged academic misconduct. 

These changes to the academic integrity process mark the first in nearly a decade, and they were spurred by concerns about school equity and resource allocation, along with the growing influence of generative AI.

The new academic integrity process is overseen by a combined academic integrity board that includes two coordinators, 23 faculty members appointed by the Faculty Senate Council, and the Student Conduct Board —- which is composed of 12 students appointed by Student Union and the Graduate Professional Student Council.

Jennifer Smith, Vice Provost for Educational Initiatives, was heavily involved in the initial proposal for changes and the decision-making that followed. 

“[The] process for adjudicating academic integrity violations was different in different schools, and it seemed like it shouldn’t [be],” Smith said. “The process should be the same regardless of what school the alleged violation happened in.”

In October 2023, the Faculty Senate and Student Conduct Board came to the decision to hire full-time academic integrity coordinators to take over the responsibilities of the faculty that ran academic integrity hearings in the past. This change, according to Smith, was intended to allow the previously in-charge faculty members more time to focus on their students, programs, and projects.

“It was about [how we] could help basically free up resources for school advising offices by taking this responsibility off of them,” Smith said. 

Aspects of the new changes were proposed by a faculty committee as far back as 2018, but no real action took place until during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“[Things] got pretty stressful during the COVID remote years,” Smith explained. “We started to see a lot more [academic integrity] issues with [students]. That’s what triggered the school academic integrity officers coming together and sketching out a direction, and then pulling together the faculty and student committees to flesh it out.”

Going forward, students with alleged academic integrity violations will meet with one of the academic integrity coordinators to be informed of their rights and the forthcoming process, which may include a hearing in front of two faculty and one student member of the academic integrity board. 

However, Andrea Melrose and Tucker Copi, the new academic integrity coordinators, urged students to not feel too overwhelmed in case they are contacted.

“We really want the [integrity] process to be developmental,” Melrose said.  “I know it creates a lot of anxiety to get a letter from one of us, but we hope that as students get to know us and get to know the process, that some of that anxiety will go away, and that we’re not so scary.”