DMD Codes and Policies

Attendance Policy
Students are expected to attend all classes unless they are ill or there are extenuating circumstances preventing their attendance. In addition, most faculty get to know students during lectures and seminars, and students will need faculty support throughout their four years of study, and even after graduation.

Missed Examination Policy
Penn Dental Medicine does not tolerate unjustifiable absences from scheduled examinations. This policy protects the vast majority of students who adhere to published examination schedules. Students with valid reasons will be approved by the Office of Academic Affairs to take a make-up exam without penalty. Each case will be considered on an individual basis. Students who miss more than one exam for invalid reasons may be brought before the Committee for Student Advancement for academic discipline.

Grading Policy
Predoctoral courses at the School of Dental Medicine are reported on either a 4-point system or a pass/fail system. Most core or compulsory courses are reported on the 4-point system, which utilizes the assigned course credit weight and the honor points to calculate the grade point average. Some compulsory courses and all selective courses utilize the pass/fail system. Pass/fail course grades are not incorporated into the grade point average. In order to graduate, students must earn passing grades in all compulsory courses and in all selective courses that they have undertaken. Students are not permitted to progress to the next academic year until they have successfully completed course and clinic work up to that point. Some exceptions may be permitted for first-year students, depending on the nature of the deficiency and the overall academic record of the student. Students may not advance to the third year until all first- and second-year courses are successfully completed with passing grades.

Occasionally, students may be exempt from a course because of an extensive and distinguished background in the subject or because they are admitted to Penn Dental Medicine with advanced standing.

Grades
Students must pass all required courses and all selective courses that they undertake. On the recommendation of the Committee for Student advancement, failed courses may be passed by a make-up examination. Alternatively, the course, or portion thereof, may need to be repeated. In most instances, falure to pass repeated courses will lead to dismissal.

Tutoring
The Office of Academic Affairs, in consultation with DMD course directors, provides tutorial assistance to students needing additional assistance in didactic courses. These sponsored tutorials are limited to students who are in danger of failing a course (i.e., who have an average below 70% based on the results of progress exams or other assignments in the course). Sponsored tutorials are not provided for students who are passing the course.

The tutorial pool consists of faculty and DMD students (the latter are recommended by course directors). Students do not pay for tutorial assistance that is provided through the Office of Academic Affairs. However, individual students may want to contract for private tutoring at their own expense.

In addition, the University’s Department of Academic Support Programs has a division of Tutoring and Learning Resources which offers academic support through a variety of tutorial services, including individual study strategy instruction and content tutoring, group workshops and walk-in learning instruction, and tutoring at various campus locations. Individual study instruction provides help with critical reading and reading versatility; time management; exam preparation; taking objective, essay, and problem-solving exams; collaborative learning; taking notes from texts and lectures; and developing your own personal learning style. Instruction is free, confidential, and personalized to the student’s own courses and concerns. To make an appointment with an instructor or to get more information, call 215-573-9235.

Resolving Grading Disagreements
If a student believes that he/she has encountered a problem in grade assignment, he/she should first bring this to the attention of the course director or the instructor involved.

The student should indicate why he/she believes that the grade may be incorrect or inappropriate and should provide the course director or instructor with any additional evidence that is pertinent to this assertion. The course director or instructor is required to render a decision after due review and consideration of the evidence.

If the student still disagrees with the course director's or instructor's action, he/she is entitled to appeal to the Department chair. After consideration of the evidence, the Chair has the authority to overrule or alter grades assigned by departmental faculty. If this fails to resolve the issue, the student may appeal to the Office of Academic Affairs for assistance.

Principles
The Ethics Code establishes broad principles governing the personal, academic and professional conduct of all Penn Dental Medicine students. This includes students enrolled in the DMD, PASS and Advanced Dental Education programs. Penn Dental Medicine requires all individuals to demonstrate mutual respect, regardless of differences, while in clinics, classrooms or laboratories, or engaged in any Penn Dental Medicine-related activity. In addition, members of the faculty have responsibility to provide an environment which fosters ethical behavior and which will, to the greatest extent possible, prevent ethical violations. The Office of Academic Affairs provides guidelines to the faculty for promoting ethical behavior.

Code of Academic Conduct
Dental Students are expected to be honorable at all times, to possess moral integrity and to treat others with respect. Dental Students will not intentionally lie, cheat, steal or plagiarize, mislead or deceive, or facilitate academic dishonesty.

Code of Clinical Conduct
Dental students must behave with paramount concern for their patients' welfare and with respect for the rights of patients. The expectations of dental students' conduct in the clinical setting include the following: honesty in interactions with patients and compliance with approved treatment plans in the best interest of the patients; adherence to appropriate standards of behavior in the presence of patients; adherence to appropriate standards of confidentiality with respect to information about patients; honesty in interactions with clinical colleagues and in record-keeping; respect for limits of responsibility and activity set forth by supervisors; and appropriate interactions with colleagues and coworkers. Penn Dental Medicine students must also comply with the School's Student Handbook, the University's code of general conduct and other university policies related to student conduct that appear in the Penn Book: Policies and Procedures Handbook of the University of Pennsylvania.

Definitions
Lie: To Speak or write deliberately that which is untrue. A lie may be an oral or written statement which is known to be false, a response to a question in which the answer is known to be false, or the initialling or signing of an official or unofficial document known to be in error or with a content designed to mislead or deceive the reader (Examples: Falsification of one's credentials to Penn Dental Medicine or to an outside agency or prospective employer; claiming credit for procedures not performed.)

Cheat: To intentionally mislead or defraud or endeavor to mislead or degraud another, or to use unauthorized assistance in submitted work designed to represent one's own efforts (Examples: Receiving unauthorized assistance from another, with or without his/her knowledge, either on a test or when homework or laboratory work has been specified to be an individual's effort; giving assistance to another, either on a test or when homework or laboratory work has been specified to be an individual's effort.)

Steal: To take, obtain or withhold property from the possession of the true owner with intention of permanently or temporarily depriving the owner of its use or possession. Dental students should ensure that they never borrow personal property of another without permission.

Plagarize: To pass off the ideas or words of another as one's own, use another's material without crediting the source, or to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. This includes use of electronic and printed material.

Mislead or Deceive: To misrepresent deliberately a true situation by being untruthful or withholding or omitting information or presenting information in such as way as to leave an erroneous or false impression. Dental students' words, statements and actions must always represent the complete truth.

Facilitate Academic Dishonesty: To knowingly help or attempt to help another violate provisions of this Code.