Week 9: Community Standards and the Honor Code

Ready, Set, Oberlin! A week-by-week guide to prepare for your arrival

Issue #9

Community Standards and the Honor Code

Written by Thom Julian, Associate Dean of Students

Students Studying at a table

Community Standards and Campus Policies

As you’ve seen showcased throughout Ready, Set, Oberlin!, Oberlin is a welcoming, vibrant community with a vast amount of opportunity. To make sure that everyone in our community feels safe and supported, students are expected to adhere to specific policies and procedures related to their academic work and personal life.

Oberlin’s Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards maintains these policies, which are outlined on this website. Our student conduct system seeks to create an environment that educates students about the relationship between their personal freedom and their responsibilities to their community, that holds all members of the community accountable for their behavior, and that promotes habits of effective and engaged citizenship.

We also understand that everyone makes mistakes. When a student does violate a policy, Oberlin prioritizes educational and restorative outcomes whenever possible.

For more information regarding the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, please view the office’s website.

Alcohol and Hazing Education

As part of our commitment to keep members of the Oberlin community safe and to meet federal requirements, all incoming students are required to complete an alcohol education and hazing prevention course.

To meet this requirement, we have partnered with Vector Solutions to provide you with an online course for each content area. You will receive an email this week from Vector Solutions with each of the courses. You may also access the training at this link. Students are required to complete this educational course by Friday, August 11, 2023.

Should you have any questions, please contact Thom Julian, Associate Dean of Students, at tjulian@oberlin.edu.

Honor Code

Oberlin’s Honor Code, initially adopted in 1930, is the policy that upholds academic integrity at Oberlin. What is unique about Oberlin’s Honor Code is that it is administered by a student board—the Student Honor Committee (SHC)—and it puts additional trust in the hands of students by not having exams proctored by faculty members.

Students studying at the Cat

For each assignment, students must sign the honor pledge, which states: "I have adhered to the Honor Code on the assignment."  This pledge is an acknowledgment that the student did not cheat, plagiarize, fabricate, or falsify information.

Students will learn more about the Honor Code during New Student Orientation and during LEAD 050. For questions regarding the Honor Code, please email the Student Honor Committee at ohonor@oberlin.edu.