Road to an honor code

By Benjamin Engle

During the weekend of October 16, members of Union College's Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) sub-council on Academic Integrity traveled to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri to attend and present at the Conference for Academic Integrity.

Associate Dean of Students and Director of Minerva Programs Tom McEvoy, Ian Clemente '10, and Benjamin Engle '12 presented Union's draft of its new honor code and honor court.

Stemming from a cheating scandal in a Mechanical Engineering class in 2006, the Academic Affairs Committee established the sub-council on Academic Integrity with the goal of creating a modified academic honor code for Union.

At the conference, hosted by Clemson University's Rutland Institute for Ethics, Union representatives led a panel discussion entitled "Reintroducing an Honor Code at a Liberal Arts College." During the discussion, McEvoy, Clemente, and Engle discussed Union's history and the actions that the College has taken to bring a modified honor code back to Union's classrooms.

Union originally had an honor code and pledge in 1909, also resulting from a cheating scandal.

Unlike the code of 1909, the sub-council is currently building a modified honor code that does not have a single penalty for academic misconduct, does not mandate students to report observed observations, and gives professors the option whether or not to have un-proctored examinations.

McEvoy, Clemente, and Engle presented the sub-council's work to approximately 15 students and faculty from around the United States.

The group explained to the audience Union's history with honor codes and how it is imperative that there be mutual support between students and faculty in order for the College to go ahead with an honor pledge, code, and court.

Support for such a code has not been mutual since 1924 when faculty lost confidence in students' willingness to report cheating on unproctored exams to the honor court. Because of this disagreement, students and faculty voted to end Union's honor code in 1925.

Union's panel made it clear to those in attendance that having an honor code on campus will reduce cheating and will emphasize academic integrity throughout.

In creating the code, Union's sub-council is hoping to reverse the ethos of the campus community by defining the relationship between a student or a faculty member and the rest of the academic community as well as making academic misconduct an educational experience rather having rules for rules' sake.

The panel believes that the conference was an effective barometer of the sub-council's work thus far.

"The Conference was important to attend because it confirmed that the work we are doing is positive," Clemente said. "The weekend validated that we are on the right track as we build an honor code and court."

With the information from the Conference, the sub-council is expanding student input by adding new members to represent the various groups on campus, including Student Forum, the Greek system, the Minervas, and multiple academic departments.

Additionally student input is important as the committee moves further along in building the honor court since they will be determining the composition of the court, how hearings are held, as well as the appeals process, among other topics.

The sub-council is hoping to present its pledge and statement on academic integrity and honor court process to the Academic Affairs Council before the end of the fall term in November to be in place for the class of 2014.

Originally published in Union's Concordy on 10/22/09