This paper discusses the rationale of implementing an "academic dishonesty equals F policy." The author asserts that faculty must take seriously those things which students are expected to take seriously. Integrity--academic, personal, and professional--is worth taking seriously. He goes on to provide three rationales to justify this policy: (1) This policy should apply when the student's actions were willful and the student clearly knew the rules; (2) Any penalty for academic misconduct should be within the bounds of institutional policies; and (3) Grades mean something, and it is the instructor's responsibility to determine that meaning for a given course and to communicate that meaning to students (Frisbie and Walthman, 1992). The academic dishonesty policy is based on the logic that an F indicates that course objectives have been fundamentally unmet. While these three points frame the rationale for the policy, the author provides two other notable arguments: (1) Faculty may be reluctant to admit responsibility to any larger entity, but teachers act as agents of institutions; (2) The notion of the university as "alma mater,"--"bounteous mother" or "fostering mother" ("New Collegiate Dictionary," 1998; "Online Oxford English Dictionary," 2014)--characterizes the university as parent; it guides and nurtures students' academic and personal development (Newman 1982). The same active consideration and application of consequences should be applied to the teachers' role as "intellectual parents" to students.