resources.

Instructor’s Course Attendance Policy

Note: KCAI no longer has a college-wide attendance policy. Attendance policies are determined by the course instructor. Instructors will notify students of their attendance policy/requirements as part of the course syllabus, which should be distributed on the first day of class. Students are responsible for reading and understanding the attendance policy for each of their courses.

Consistent attendance is critical to learning, growth, and academic success; therefore, students are expected to attend all class meetings. While the Institute recognizes there may be times when a student cannot attend, there are no “excused” absences. If students wish to make up work in exceptional circumstances such as death in the family, serious medical conditions, hospitalization, or observance of religious holidays, the student must provide appropriate documentation to the Disabilities and Academic Support Coordinator. Students should only submit documentation when an absence has led to a missed deadline, critique, or exam, or when an extenuating circumstance may have caused an impact on the student’s grade. All documentation must be received within 24 hours of the absence in question. Once the documentation has been submitted, the instructor will be contacted, and the student will then be responsible for completing work missed, as well as meeting any additional requirements as determined by the instructor.

Each instructor will clearly define the course attendance policy through the syllabus which will be distributed on the first day of class and will consistently apply this to all students enrolled in the course. Students must be present for all regularly scheduled examinations and submit complete assignments when they are due, unless alternative arrangements are made in advance, or documentation of an exceptional circumstance is submitted and accepted.

For absences related to pregnancy and/or pregnancy-related conditions, please refer to the Pregnancy and Pregnancy Related Conditions Policy listed in the syllabus.

First Day Attendance Policy: Attendance at the first class meeting of the semester is mandatory for all students. If a student fails to attend the first class meeting of the semester without receiving permission from the instructor in advance of the first class, the student’s enrollment in the class will be forfeited so that the first student on the wait list for the class may be enrolled. Once the Registrar has been notified of the absence via the attendance software, the student will be dropped from the class, and the first student on the wait list will be notified by the Registrar that they are being enrolled in the class. Students on the wait list are not allowed to attend class until receiving notification of their enrollment from the Registrar.

Disabilities Accommodations
Overview

KCAI students with disabilities are invited to disclose any disabilities they may have, but such a disclosure is not mandatory.  Once documentation of a disability is received, students are provided with reasonable accommodations, which are designed to provide equal access to the material and environment of the classes that the students are enrolled in. These accommodations may include extended time for testing, preferential seating, note-taking assistance, and the recording of class lectures. Unlike the services that are available to the student body in its entirety, accommodations are mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and are dependent on appropriate documentation.
Disclosure of Disability

If a student discloses a disability directly to a faculty member and requests an accommodation, the faculty member should refer the student to Disability Services. A direct disclosure to a faculty member, without accompanying documentation from the Disabilities Coordinator, does not allow a student access to accommodations.  Once a student provides documentation to our office, and provides written permission for disclosure of that information to faculty, the faculty members will receive a memo from the Disabilities Coordinator explaining the necessary accommodations.

Confidentiality

Documentation regarding a student’s disability is protected under both FERPA and HIPAA laws. Faculty should also be mindful of the sensitivity that can accompany student disclosure. Each student relates to his or her disability differently, and some are more comfortable discussing it than others. Because of this, any conversation regarding a student’s disability should be held either before or after class, and should be initiated by the student. Any questions from faculty regarding the student’s accommodations should be directed to:

Jessica Blanford, Disabilities and Academic Support Coordinator
jblanford@kcai.edu
816-802-3440

Academic Honesty

The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is committed to creating and maintaining an environment where individual and institutional responsibility combine to promote each student’s development. Students are encouraged to help create an environment that stimulates their education consistent with the values of the college. With that freedom comes a responsibility to respect others. All individuals at KCAI are considered adults, and it is assumed they will maintain standards of conduct and academic honesty appropriate to membership in the college community. The college accepts and retains students on the condition that they observe these standards. The Academic Honesty Policy is applicable to all students. A student is defined as an individual who is accepted until the time of graduation, but does not include time periods in between acceptance and graduation when a student is not enrolled for a semester or more.

All willful and careless violations of the Academic Honesty Policy are taken as an offense against the Kansas City Art Institute and may result in sanctions.

Violations of the academic honesty policy are defined as follows:

A.    The copying of another student’s work or the use of unauthorized notes and materials during examinations or other assignments.
B.    Plagiarism, or the presentation of either the written or visual work of others (including that of other students) as one’s own.  The offense of plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:
1.     Submitting as one’s own work material copied from a published source.
2.     Submitting as one’s own work someone else’s published work.
3.     Submitting as one’s own work a rewritten or paraphrased version of someone else’s work.
4.     Allowing someone or paying someone to write a paper or other assignment on your behalf.
5.     Turning in a purchased pre-written paper.

C.    Cheating and unauthorized assistance during an examination or for other assignments.
D.   Obtaining unauthorized materials in order to prepare for an examination.
E.    The unauthorized removal, destruction or deliberate concealment of library or other resource materials.
F.    Submitting work in one class for credit in another without the instructor’s permission.
G.   Any other act which might give one an unearned advantage in evaluation or performance.
H.   Assisting or attempting to assist another to violate the Academic Honesty Policy.
I.     Attempting to commit a violation of the Academic Honesty Policy.
Plagiarism is a serious offense at the Kansas City Art Institute, and may be illegal in the context of our nation’s copyright law. As such, it is important to know what plagiarism is in both one’s studio and liberal arts work. According to the Modern Language Associate, plagiarism is “the wrongful act of taking the product of another person’s mind, and presenting it as one’s own.” In other words, plagiarism is the use of not just words but ideas borrowed from someone else without crediting the source. Students are required to learn the arts-standard, Chicago Manual of Style guidelines for citing sources referenced in their own work, and must follow them carefully in their research and writing projects.

Students are also expected to be honest in their studio practices, particularly since the practice of appropriation is such an important strategy in art history. Though they might appear to be similar, plagiarism and appropriation are actually two very different practices. While it is true that appropriation involves taking possession of something often without permission-which for the visual artist usually means taking an image- it is also true that an appropriated image is not passed off as the original production of the appropriating artist. Indeed, the appropriation artist wants the viewer to recognize that an image has been utilized and referenced. (An artist who appropriates an image inevitably wishes to comment upon the original source in some way, usually as a critique, parody, or homage-all of which happen to fall under the realm of “fair use” in copyright law.) As such, appropriation is actually more like citing a source than plagiarizing it.

KCAI Academic Honesty Policy violations may result in sanctions up to and including a formal warning, opportunity to redo the assignment, failing the assignment and/or class, suspension, and expulsion from the college.

The KCAI Academic Honesty Policy and Procedures can be found in its entirety at https://artnet.kcai.edu/sites/default/files/academichonesty.docx.pdf

For all academic and campus policies, see the online policy library at https://artnet.kcai.edu/student-policy-library

Pregnancy and Pregnancy-Related Conditions Policy
When a proper disclosure has been made to KCAI, federal law requires KCAI to excuse absences due to pregnancy and/or pregnancy-related conditions, including recovery from childbirth, as long as a student’s doctor deems those absences medically necessary.  Students who are absent due to pregnancy and/or pregnancy-related conditions may be eligible to make up missed work, take a leave of absence, or elect to take an incomplete grade.  In addition, certain reasonable program adjustments may be available based on a student’s temporary pregnancy status, such as a larger desk, permission for frequent trips to the bathroom, or temporary parking close to a building.  Students who are pregnant or recovering from childbirth are encouraged, but not required, to disclose their condition to the Disability and Academic Support Coordinator at 816-802-3440 or jblanford@kcai.edu who can provide more information about excused absences and accommodations.

Pregnant and/or breastfeeding students should also be aware of the potential for exposure to hazardous materials in the classroom.  To obtain more information about specific risks, pregnant and/or breastfeeding students should contact the Disability and Academic Support Coordinator at 816-802-3440 or jblanford@kcai.edu