Hi. I have been accused of two offences this semester. This first one was for plaigerism however what happened was that I accidentally submitted my assignment to the wrong course and plaigerism picked it up. I was told I would be contacted by the dean. Recently I got another offence for one of my midterms for another course because my friend and I had very similar answers. I’m in a very bad state right now and don’t know what to expect. Please help me
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hey there,
it seems like academic offence accusations have skyrocketed ever since school went online.
i can imagine that you’re probably feeling incredibly anxious, so i really hope that you’re able to reach out to some kind of support. you can talk to someone in your life whom you trust if you haven’t already, or you can get in touch with one of the counsellors over at mySSP. you shouldn’t have to go through this alone.
i’m not really sure what kind of help i can offer, but i can tell you what i know about the academic offence process, to kinda arm you with knowledge about what’s to come.
so pretty much everything there is to know about academic offences at u of t can be found in this document. according to the document, an instructor is supposed to have a discussion with you and get your side of the story before reporting things to the dean. i’m not sure if that already happened to you as you didn’t mention it, but it is a good rule to be aware of in case proper procedures aren’t being followed here.
before you meet with the dean, you’re allowed to seek out guidance. i’d very strongly recommend that you get in touch with your registrar’s office and ask to book an appointment with an academic advisor. academic advisors are incredibly experienced at navigating these kinds of situations, and i don’t think anything you say to one can be used against you. going through this process without the advice of an academic advisor is really risky—don’t do it.
normally i would do my best to walk you through everything you would be looking at, but my inbox is drowning in questions and i don’t have enough details about your case (weight of assignment? first offence?) to do so anyway. everything you might be looking at is contained in the code of behaviour on academic matters, including all the different meetings you may have to attend and the types of sanctions you may be looking at. you know your situation best, so do a quick scan over the document and you’ll be able to map out your path going forward.
in total, if you didn’t do anything wrong and things just look suspicious, i wouldn’t worry too much. i know that’s easy for me to say, but all these procedures are in place to ensure that due process is followed in convicting students of academic offences. if something goes wrong, you are able to appeal whatever decision is made. i know it’s scary. but if you know you didn’t do anything wrong, then you didn’t do anything wrong. remember that for now, these are just accusations.
sending you all the support and solidarity from afar. best of luck with everything! please reach out to the supports i mentioned. i think they’ll be really helpful to you.
be Boundless,
aska