STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT

In 1987, the Academic Council adopted an Honor Code to be used at the discretion of the faculty. In order for it to be used in a particular class, students must vote unanimously to adopt the Code.

The following statements serve as the rationale for the Honor Code:
1. Students should be conscious of the need to take personal responsibility for all their work both as individuals and as members of a class.

2. Students and faculty members should actively engage in discussions related to academic integrity (e.g., differences between plagiarism and legitimate scholarly work and appropriate versus inappropriate sharing of information among classmates).

3. Faculty members should be able to treat their students as fellow searchers for knowledge; in order to do so; they should not have to police examination rooms.

The following procedures for adopting the Honor Code are suggested:

1. At the beginning of a course, a professor may choose to discuss the Honor Code and academic integrity in general.

2. A class would be asked to vote on the use of the Code. A vote would be taken, by secret ballot, during the first few days of the course. In order to adopt the Code, the vote must be unanimous.

3. All students would sign an Honor Pledge at the end of every examination.

4. The professor would leave the classroom during examinations but would remain available in case of questions.

5. Students would feel obligated to report breaches of the Honor Code to the professor or to the Office of Academic Affairs.

6. Violations of the Honor Code would be handled exactly like any other cases of plagiarism or cheating.