Editing Herzing Issues: Academic Integrity (section)

=== HU-089: Faculty edited student discussion board post without consent ===
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
! style="width:14em" | Severity
| Medium
! style="width:14em" | Status
| POSSIBLE
|-
! Issue type
| Faculty Editing Student Academic Work
! Date added
| 2026-05-05
|-
! Owner
| colspan="3" | Faculty / Academic Affairs / Program Chair
|}
'''Finding.''' According to the tracker, Student J posted a question, on May 6, 2024, asking whether it was permissible for a faculty member to edit a student's discussion post, and stated she had never had that experience before. According to the tracker, the responding comment associated this with Dr. Holland, who teaches A&P II, a prerequisite course. Whether faculty have authority to edit student-submitted academic work without consent is reported as a concern raising questions about academic record integrity and the authenticity of graded submissions.

'''Evidence.''' [post link redacted], May 6, 2024. Student CQ response (May 7, 2024) asked what was edited and whether Student J had Dr. Holland; Student J confirmed she did. Source Group: Herzing Direct Entry MSN Facebook Group Export (Dec 2022 to May 2026), Exhaustive Line-by-Line Review, 34,887 lines, 1,350 posts, 14,112 comments, 8 passes (Volume 7).

'''Reported statement.''' Student J asked whether it was normal for a teacher to edit a student's discussion post, said she had never had that experience before, and confirmed the faculty member involved was Dr. Holland.

'''Standards.''' FERPA (20 U.S.C. §1232g): educational records, including student academic submissions, belong to the student; unauthorized modification may implicate FERPA. Academic integrity principles: graded student work must represent the student's own submission; faculty editing submitted work for grade raises authenticity concerns. If the discussion post is a graded assignment, editing it post-submission affects the graded record without documented institutional authority.

'''Impact.''' If faculty are routinely editing student academic submissions without documentation or consent, graded records may not accurately reflect student performance. Students have a right to know what they submitted and what was graded. This is reported as a POSSIBLE issue pending verification of whether the post was graded, whether edits were documented, and institutional policy on faculty editing of student submissions.

'''Notes.''' Single documented instance; requires institutional verification. Student J's expressed shock suggests this was not standard practice at other institutions she had attended. Dr. Holland teaches A&P II, a prerequisite course, so this may affect prerequisite coursework records.

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