Justice Karen Peters
Shah admitted in 2009 to plagiarizing a biology class lab report. Two years later he was charged with submitting a lab report bearing material plagiarized from his lab partner’s report. He also submitted an assignment including material plagiarized from online sources. Union College’s Subcouncil on Academic Standing of Students found Shah guilty of both charges, but that hearing was procedurally irregular. Shah was found guilty after a new hearing. Penaltiesa grade of zero for the lab report, and course failure and suspension from the fall 2011 termwere administratively upheld. The Third Department upheld dismissal of Shah’s Article 78 petition to annul the penalties. Noting that Union’s guidelines do not preclude the same panel members from presiding over hearings on remand, the court rejected Shah’s assertion that the college violated its own guidelines by conducting the new hearings before panels whose members were on the initial hearing panels. Further, the penalties were not disproportionate to Shah’s offenses. The court observed, contrary to Shah’s claim, that Union did not expel him from a program that would have allowed him automatic enrollment in Albany Medical College school upon obtaining his degree.
