Buddha Dharma University requires students to embrace, at minimum, the Five Precepts:

• The First Precept: I vow to support all living creatures, and refrain from killing.
• The Second Precept: I vow to respect the property of others, and refrain from stealing.
• The Third Precept: I vow to regard all beings with respect and dignity, and refrain from objectifying others.
• The Fourth Precept: I vow to be truthful, and refrain from lying.
• The Fifth Precept: I vow to maintain a clear mind and refrain from harming myself or others with intoxication.

In addition, we ask that our students have a profound respect for — and involvement with — the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Deadlines
Occasionally missing homework is forgivable. However, meeting deadlines indicates a mastery of self, as well as a respect for the professor’s time. Submit homework on time. Frequent lateness (or missing assignments) may result in lower grades, at the discretion of the professor.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is taking, without permission or attribution, material found in books, magazines, newspapers, databases, movies, recordings — or copying and quoting information found on the Internet without citing your source. A basic guideline is if you are using 5 or more words in a row from another source, they should be in quotes. The author should be cited, even if you are paraphrasing.

Plagiarism violates the 2nd and 4th Precepts. It is both stealing and lying. It will not be tolerated at Buddha Dharma University.

• First offense: Receiving one full grade lower for the course (in courses that are letter graded and not pass/fail).
• Second offense: Receiving a failing grade for the course.
• Third offense: Review by the Governing Board of Buddha Dharma University and probable expulsion from the University.

Forum Guidelines
Buddha Dharma University is an internet environment primarily for the discussion of each course’s material, as well as other topics of interest to members. All are welcome, but are required to abide by these terms of service.

Each course’s forums have been created for particular areas of interest, so please respect these boundaries. Buddha Dharma University administrators and moderators reserve the right to edit inappropriate content, and to remove or transfer any posts or threads that are not relevant to the forum or sub-forum in which they are posted. Any subject matter that may be off-topic or is intended to cause disruption or harm to others may be removed without notice. This includes, without limitation, trolling, commercial advertising, proselytizing, ad hominem attacks, personal insults, and derogatory attacks against a branch of the Buddha Sangha or another religion.

This also includes posting multiple posts in close succession, which may be seen as attempting to dominate other posters and/or the thread. Common courtesy is required, and anyone trying to teach others in the forum’s course, other than the Course Professor, will be sanctioned and if necessary, reprimanded.

Spelling/Grammatical Accuracy
Homework submitted that is riddled with errors of grammar, syntax, or spelling will be graded accordingly. In the age of technology, with numerous online dictionaries at one’s disposal (not to mention the spell checker inherent in Microsoft Word and most e-mail programs), there’s no excuse for sloppiness. Use your spell checker!

Skillful Attitudes and Actions Include:

• Timeliness
• Commitment
• Participation
• Respect
• Communication
• Flexibility
• Honesty
• Guilelessness
• Compassion

​Dismissal From Buddha Dharma University
If the above are violated frequently, or if a single violation is severe enough, students may be expelled from Buddha Dharma University.