Union to create and institute new academic honor code

By Benjamin Engle

The Academic Affairs Committee has recently created a new sub-council on academic honor codes charged with the goal of creating a modified academic honor code for Union College that will include an honor pledge and an honor court. This will shift the roles of both students and administrators during the judicial process.

The committee hopes to adopt an honor code and honor court sometime next year in time for the Class of 2014.

The Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) sub-council on Academic Honor Code, headed by Philosophy Professor Baker and chair of the Rapaport Ethics Across the Curriculum Initiative, made up of students, faculty, and administrators, has been established based on the AAC Sub-council on Academic Integrity's recommendations.

The AAC established the Sub-council on Academic Integrity in Fall 2006 after a case of cheating on an engineering lab in a course taught by Professor Brad Bruno, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. The two students, who were caught inappropriately collaborating on a lab report, were required to research issues regarding academic integrity on college campuses. The students found that modified honor codes were increasingly being utilized successfully on other college campuses.

Union first instituted an honor code and pledge in 1909 through a student vote in reaction to a cheating scandal. The code at that time included an all-student Honor Court, which required students to report any case of misconduct. After working successfully for over a decade, in 1925 students and faculty voted to end its honor code. Previous unsuccessful attempts at returning an honor code to Union failed in 1965 and as recently as 1985.

As part of the committee's activities, the sub-council on Academic Integrity looked at 31 schools that Union compares itself to, 16 of which have honor codes. It formally interviewed the honor councils at Williams College and Skidmore College, as well as contacting other schools with honor codes.

In the spring of 2007, the sub-council on Academic Integrity emailed Union students and faculty a survey regarding cheating and the interest in creating an honor code at Union.

"This process consults students with surveys on how they want to be treated as well as faculty with proposals based on the data," Baker said.

The Academic sub-council presented the AAC with a report and recommendation in May 2008, suggesting that Union establish a modified academic honor code as well as the sub-council on Academic Honor Code.

The Honor Code sub-council is currently developing the new code and pledge as well as designing the process and procedures for an honor court. Currently, cases dealing with Academic Integrity go through an administrative judicial process.

"This is a unique opportunity for students at Union to offer input on how they want to be treated," Baker said. "Do they want to be judged by their peers or by faculty?"

Many schools that Union often compares itself to, including Williams and Skidmore, have honor codes that include honor pledges and courts. At Williams and Skidmore, the Honor Court is presided over entirely by students and has issues penalties that vary from case to case. Skidmore's Honor Court also deals with social misconduct, including alcohol and vandalism cases.

Based on the surveys completed by students and faculty, Union is not currently developing an Honor Court to deal with social misconduct because while the two parties agree on what academic misconduct is, they do not agree on what social misconduct is.

The AAC hopes that the modified honor code and court will create stronger trust relations between students and faculty. It will give both parties more options when dealing with academic misconduct. For example, students won't be forced to report incidents. Professors will have the option of using turnitin.com and the opportunity to proctor or not proctor exams.

"We have to teach students how to be morally responsible, but to do that, we must give them moral responsibility," Baker said. "Students will learn that they are responsible for themselves."
While Union has a low level of academic misconduct, Baker believes that the discussion of a modified honor code and court is important. "The introduction of a modified honor code should further decrease the number of cases. It will give accountability not to faculty, but to students."
Baker believes that based on the results of student surveys, current Union students believe a modified honor code is positive for the college, "It is clearly time for a change. It is an embarrassment, unlike the best schools in the country, that Union doesn't trust students to survey misconduct of fellow students."

The entire report and recommendations of the AAC Sub-council on Academic Integrity can viewed on-line by searching "AAC" on the Union website.

Originally published in Union's Concordy on 4/9/09