Oberlin's Honor Code Weathers Changing Times in Country and on Campus Honor Committees Plan Educational Outreach to Reinvigorate Awareness of Code by Anne C. Paine | photos by Rebecca Lammons '06 March 24, 2003 Inadvertent Cheating The majority of cases brought before the SHC involve plagiarism among first- and second-year students, as most juniors and seniors have become acculturated to the code and its requirements, says Erik Inglis, assistant professor of art history and chair of the General Faculty Honor Committee (GFHC). Cases in the sciences are infrequent, says GFHC member and neuroscience Associate Professor Jan Thornton, because "in the sciences, as in many disciplines, certain ethical expectations are there regardless of whether there's an honor code." Cases in the Conservatory are largely confined as well, says Associate Dean David H. Stull, another GFHC member. "In the Conservatory, students primarily need to be aware of copyright law and the concept of intellectual property," he says. "The vast majority of honor code violations in the Conservatory are plagiarism cases in music history and music theory courses."   Erik Inglis, assistant professor of art history and chair of the General Faculty Honor Committee (GFHC)   Members of both the student and faculty honor committees believe that most cheating at Oberlin is either unintentional or the result of a bad decision made by a student under stress. Reflecting this belief, the hearing process is largely confidential. And while Oberlin's honor code does permit strong sanctions—including loss of privileges, failing grades, suspension, and expulsion—the sanction for first-time violators is generally educational, not punitive. This is not the case at some schools, which mark students' records immediately and permanently. At the University of Virginia, for example, a single infraction of the code results in expulsion. Other schools, such as the University of Maryland, have adopted a grade of XF to indicate failure due to cheating. "The honor code is about trusting students. So many cases we get are unintentional plagiarism cases, or cases where the student just didn't seek out the right resources," says junior Maggie Raife, an English major who is co-chair of the SHC. "We try to make a comfortable environment—we're here to learn how and why the violation happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. Many students are relieved by the comfortable environment; it helps them talk about things." "Because we focus on education and not punishment, in many cases the appropriate sanction is a reflective paper on what else the student could have done, and what College services are available that should have been taken advantage of," says senior art history major Sarah Colvario, the other SHC co-chair. "Many students don't know about academic incompletes or the various resources here: the counseling center, the class deans, the academic advisors—there are many people in place here to make sure you succeed." Some students enter Oberlin unprepared to write academic research papers, and that can cause unintentional plagiarism cases, hypothesizes Jackson-Davidson, who has taught courses in rhetoric and composition and African American studies.     Sarah Colvario, co-chair of SHC "Experience has taught me not to assume that competent writers are necessarily competent researchers," she says. "In developing my syllabi, I've learned to integrate specific instruction on research strategies and to break long-term research projects into steps. I think this improves the quality of the assignments and limits the opportunity for unintentional plagiarism." "We're really having to teach students how to do research papers," agrees Inglis, the chair of the GFHC. He recently graded a first-year research paper that listed only three sources, and is now is considering specifying the number and types of sources to be used for research papers in his classes. A further difficulty: In this decade, roughly 40 percent of the Oberlin faculty will become eligible to retire. Many of the new faculty members being hired come from institutions that don't have an honor code, and thus are as unfamiliar with the concept of honor codes and the procedures of Oberlin's code as the first- and second-year students they teach. "The honor code has been around so long and has worked so well that it was falling into the woodwork," says Inglis. "With all the faculty turnover taking place right now, we need to bring it back out of the woodwork." Education: An Ounce of Prevention An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and when it comes to preventing honor code violations, education is the most logical and potent inoculation available. The new code places a major emphasis on educational efforts. "Education is important because, first and foremost, the code stipulates that ignorance isn't an excuse," says Inglis. The two honor committees have spent this year mapping out ways to promote awareness of the code. A number of initiatives are under way or being planned. At last fall's new-student orientation, the Student Honor Committee presented a talk on the honor code as part of a larger information session done by Student Academic Services. SHC co-chairs Colvario and Raife hope that an entire session can be devoted to the code during the fall 2003 orientation. Sessions may also be given at next fall's orientations for new faculty members and advisors, as well as in residence halls. Another innovation is a monthly column devoted to the honor code in the Review. Students can submit questions and concerns about the code to the SHC, and committee members will provide answers in the column. Once each semester, the SHC will publish a summary of its actions (with names removed) in the Review. Faculty members also must be reminded to fulfill their responsibilities to educate students in their classes about the code, says SHC co-chair Raife. "Two out of the five syllabi I got at the start of the spring semester didn't include any mention of the honor code. It can be very awkward for a student to have to address these matters with a faculty member." Ideally, both honor committees would like to see faculty members expand their communication about the code beyond a mere mention on course syllabi, and they are exploring ways to achieve this. "There's no cure-all for education," says Inglis. "We have to be like Velcro—we have to have a thousand hooks, because we never know which hook will catch someone's attention." Continue to page 1 | 2 | 3