Terms of Reference

Approved by Senate, April 2026.

Responsibilities

The Academic Integrity Committee (AIC) is a Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Senate committee. The committee is responsible for reviewing and making decisions on cases of suspected departure from academic integrity, as established in Academic Integrity Policy (ED 5-0) and related procedures.

Composition

Voting members:

• One Dean’s Designate, which may be the Dean, from each School or Faculty, appointed by the Dean.
• One Faculty Member from each School or Faculty, nominated by the respective Faculty Councils and approved by Senate.
• One TRU World International Education representative nominated by the Vice President International and approved by Senate.
• One Open Learning representative nominated by the Vice Provost Open Learning and approved by Senate.
• One Library representative nominated by the University Librarian and approved by Senate.
• Three Undergraduate students nominated by the TRU Students’ Union and appointed by the Senate Steering Committee.
• One Graduate student nominated by the TRU Students’ Union and appointed by the Senate Steering Committee.
• One Writing Centre representative to be nominated by the Writing Centre Coordinator and approved by Senate.

Non-Voting members:

• Director, Centre for Academic Integrity.
• Learning Strategist, Centre for Academic Integrity.

Term of Office

• Normally, voting members serve three-year terms and may be reappointed by the constituency that appointed them.
• Student members serve a term of up to one year and may be reappointed. TRUSU may appoint additional students to be Alternate Student Members. If a vacancy arises mid-year for any of the student positions, TRUSU may designate an alternate to act until Senate Steering Committee fills that vacancy.
• In circumstances where the Dean’s designate and faculty representative are the same individual, they are limited to one vote in total.

Chair

• The AIC Chair shall be a voting member of the committee, excluding the deans designates, nominated and elected by the AIC as a whole.
• Normally, the AIC shall use a three-year model of Vice Chair – Chair – Past Chair in managing its leadership. If a member is serving in this leadership sequence and the term expires before the sequence is completed, then, with the approval of Senate, the term will be extended to complete the leadership sequence. This provision will be applied if the member is in his or her first term of membership on AIC.

Panel composition

• Panels should be composed to represent the balance of membership types on the committee as a whole, with at least one dean’s designate and one student.
• The AIC Chair sits on all panels as a voting member.

Quorum

• Plenary meeting quorum consists of a majority of the total number of voting members and must include the AIC Chair, or designate, and at least one student representative and one dean or dean’s designate. This number is based on the number of filled committee positions and does not include those positions sitting vacant.
• Panel meeting quorum is a minimum of five voting members and must include the AIC Chair, or designate, and at least one student representative and one dean or dean’s designate.
• Members absent for three consecutive meetings are deemed to have vacated their seat, requiring either a new nomination/appointment or a formal accommodation approved by the Senate Steering Committee to hold the position for a period of time, such as a sabbatical or term teaching conflict.

Support

The AIC will have administrative support provided by the Centre for Academic Integrity, who will:

• Prepare and distribute cases and agendas and set up and administer all meetings.
• Maintain records, minutes, database, and other such files.
• Support members with secure access to files during and between meetings.
• Provide training and orientation to new members during onboarding.
• Support committee members to find alternate members for quorum when absences are unavoidable.

Meetings and Procedure

Plenary and Panels

The AIC meets to fulfill its responsibilities both as a full committee in plenary sessions and in smaller panels.

• The majority of cases will be decided by panels to ensure that student cases are adjudicated in a timely manner by the committee.
• Plenary sessions will be held to handle complex or contested cases, as well as to facilitate discussion on educational matters, procedures and other committee business.
• The Chair of AIC may call plenary sessions at their discretion, at the request of membership, or in alignment with operating procedures.
• Panels themselves may decide to refer cases to plenary consideration, in which case they would not formally consider the case.

Procedures

• All AIC meetings will be held within a designated two-hour meeting block reserved each week to ensure full membership availability throughout the year.
• Panel assignments and scheduling within that block will be done at a minimum on a month-to-month basis.
• The AIC administrative support will provide agenda and access to cases under review at least seven days prior to the meeting.
• Meeting attendees should confirm attendance at least four days prior to the meeting and, in the case of panels, work with the CAI to find an alternative member if unable to attend.
• Members of the committee are expected to recuse themselves from any case adjudication where there may be real or perceived conflict of interest.