Highline College Procedures and Policies - Winter 2021

Cultural Diversity Policy

Highline College actively promotes and supports a learning and work environment which ensures social justice, mutual respect, understanding, civility, and non-violence. Highline College is committed to the elimination of discrimination based on biological sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnic background, national origin, class, economic status, age, military and veteran status, disability, language, culture, and religious beliefs.

Student Responsibilities for Classroom Behavior

Student rights and responsibilities are outlined in the Student Conduct Code WAC 1321-125 Links to an external site. (full URL: http://bit.ly/HighlineSCC Links to an external site.). The code prohibits disorderly or bothersome conduct which interferes with the rights of others or which obstructs or disrupts teaching. Further, the instructor is responsible for classroom conduct and is authorized to take such steps as are necessary when a student’s behavior interrupts normal classroom procedures.

Academic Honesty Policy

Students are expected to maintain a high standard of honesty in their academic work. Cheating and plagiarism are specifically prohibited under the college’s Student Rights and Responsibilities provisions.

Acts of cheating may include submitting work for credit that is not the student’s own, copying examination answers from fellow students or other sources, or assisting other students in acts of these kinds. Plagiarism, the presentation of another’s writing or ideas as one’s own, can take a number of forms - failing to cite sources, copying source texts or online sources without quotation, or inadequately paraphrasing or synthesizing source materials.

Students who are unsure of what might constitute plagiarism or cheating are encouraged to consult their instructors, class materials and other college resources for guidance.

Your instructor’s syllabus includes information about how they will handle instances of academic dishonesty. This may include making a report to the Office of Community Standards/Student Conduct after speaking with you about the situation.

Students who have more than one report of alleged academic dishonesty during their time at Highline College may be required to meet with a Conduct Officer for a student conduct hearing and have sanctions imposed. It is both your right and responsibility to be familiar with the document entitled the Student Conduct Code WAC 1321-125 Links to an external site. (full URL: http://bit.ly/HighlineSCC Links to an external site.).

Student Complaint Procedure (Instructional Grievance Process)

In the case of a complaint about an instructor or class, students are encouraged to speak with their instructor first, and if the matter is not resolved, students should then contact the department coordinator or division chair. For more detail on the student complaint procedure see the Instructional Grievance Process Links to an external site. (full URL: http://bit.ly/HighlineIGP Links to an external site.).

Incompletes

An “incomplete” is a grade on your transcript that is converted to a decimal grade when you finish all of your work for the course. It is intended for students who are successfully passing the course until the very end, when they encounter a major emergency, such as a car accident or hospital stay. Students requesting an incomplete must have satisfactorily finished at least 80 percent of the course work and have an approved and documented reason for not completing the course. Incompletes must be completed in a specific time frame (no more than one year); if the work is not completed within that time, the incomplete converts to the grade the student earns without having done that work.

Withdrawal from a course

Students who have not officially withdrawn from the class by the final withdraw deadline will receive a grade based on the work they have completed to that date, even if they have stopped attending class. Be aware that if you stop coming to class and do not officially withdraw, you are likely to earn a 0.0 in the class, which will remain permanently on your transcript.

First-week nonattendance. In order to accommodate students waiting to register for a course, instructors have the discretion to initiate a withdrawal at the end of the first week of the quarter (or its equivalent for summer). This withdrawal may be authorized when students do not attend at least 60 percent of the class time during the first week. Students should contact their instructors to request an exception to this policy so that in the event of unavoidable absences they will not be withdrawn.

Emergency Procedures

An evacuation plan is posted in each classroom. Please take a few moments to review the material and be familiar with campus emergency plans. See the detailed Highline College Emergency Procedures (Full URL: https://adminservices.highline.edu/public-safety).

Note

This is a list of college policies that are most relevant for your experience in this class. For a full list of procedures, see the college catalog: