Faculty Panel on Academic Professionalism (FPAP) for SOM

The FPAP deals with all professional behavior issues that occur in any course activity settings, or with faculty interactions and communications, or peer interactions within the course setting whilst students are enrolled in the basic sciences courses and clerkships, e.g., missed examinations, examination compliance issues, cheating, plagiarism, and/or behavior contrary to the outcome objectives and expectations provided in the student manual, clinical training manual and syllabus. The FPAP determine academic consequences of non-professional behavior within the course structure and can escalate egregious incidents to the Judicial Board which may apply further sanctions as appropriate.

Where appropriate, any course and examination noncompliance issues may be referred to a FPAP hearing. The Panel Hearings will be administered by the office of the senior associate dean of basic sciences or senior associate dean of clinical studies, as appropriate. An associate/assistant dean of basic sciences or clinical studies, who is not involved directly in student support, will Chair the meeting, and the membership of the panel will be comprised of at least 2 other faculty of the School of Medicine as appointed by the Senior associate Dean of basic sciences or clinical studies. The faculty serving on the panel will be MD faculty of the SOM, that are not involved in student advising, and that have experience with the standards for promotion and progression outlined in the student manual and clinical training manual.

A quorum for the committee is 3, and decisions are reached by simple majority in which the Chair has a casting vote in the event of a tie. The committee may refer the student to an appropriate support service, or when appropriate, and as outlined in the course syllabus, recommend application of the appropriate academic penalty published in the course syllabus. The panel may reduce the penalty applied but cannot exceed that published in the syllabus. The committee may also require evidence of remediation and can define a customized remediation pathway for any infractions related to lapsed professional behavior. Course grades may be held as incomplete (I) until the student demonstrates any remediation outcomes as defined by the FPAP. The recommendation of the Panel is passed to the senior associate dean of basic sciences  or clinical studies for action and communication of the recommendation to the student.