Students caught violating the University’s academic honesty policy will no longer be able to appeal to their professors for forgiveness.

In a University Council meeting Tuesday, faculty members approved a plan that calls for a review board to determine the fate of students who are caught violating the academic honesty policy multiple times.

Educational Affairs Committee chair William Vencil said it was necessary to revise the academic honesty policy because members of the faculty expressed concerns about how to deal with students caught with multiple violations.

Since a second violation of the old version of the policy would result in expulsion from the University automatically, Vencil said students made emotional pleas to instructors for exceptions.

This created difficult situations for instructors, he said.

The revised policy will relieve some of the pressures from instructors, he said.

“This would take it out of the professor’s hands and put it under a Multiple Violations Review Board which will decide on the sanctions,” Vencil said.

The Multiple Violations Review Board, a group composed of two faculty members and one student, will determine the consequences for multiple violations of the academic honesty policy. The review board can decide to suspend, dismiss or expel students caught violating the academic honesty policy multiple times.

The instructor who caught the student will have some say in the student’s punishment. According to the revised version of the policy, the instructor and student will discuss the consequences within the course. These consequences will be unrelated to those assessed by the Multiple Violations Review Board.

In other business, the University Council approved seven majors as external degrees provided on the Griffin Campus and one major as an external degree offered at the Gwinnett campus.

The council also approved language changes to its bylaws and the University statutes.