Charged with plagiarism

I've been adjunct online faculty for 4 different schools. I find UOP to be the best at handling this issue. Students have access to TII. The workshop really is helpful. There is a database for faculty to post concerns of plagiarism so we can tell if the student has had previous issues.

The consequences are fair to both faculty and student. I have the right to assign a grade of 0 for the assignment (and I do) yet it is not a death-sentence (academically) for a student.

Other schools? I recently had one school tell me that I needed to accept a paper with a 15% penalty when it was 85% plagiarized. I was told that it was an issue of the student (who is about to graduate!) not being familiar enough with APA formatting requirements.

Another submission for another school was almost entirely plagiarized. I was told that the most severe consequence I was permitted to levy was to allow the student to submit a second attempt. I negotiated with the university to penalize the paper 40% so that the student could not pass the assignment (but could pass the course).

These schools are well-regarded programs. Regionally-accredited. B&M/Online. Positive posts on this very message board.

Again, UOP has a good program (at least the one I facilitate for). The program is rigorous and the students have a lot of great resources to use. I understand that its big - and expensive - but the idea that it is second-class (or third or fourth or whatever) doesn't line up with my experiences.