More than 99 colleges have honor codes.

The article is grossly incorrect in saying that only 99 schools have honor codes. Actually, there are 99 members of the Center for Academic Integrity.

The University of Virginia should not be embarrassed. They are trying to hold a high standard, but are simply reaping the result of 33 years of having prayer removed from the public schools and many other attacks on the most solid basis for integrity: faith.

A completely secular society should never be surprised by dishonesty.

Have a happy day!

Cal, at 7:56 am EDT on June 30, 2005

Egotistical? I am confused. You are saying that believing in a higher power is egotistical? To say that I am a sinner and have screwed up and to believe that there is a God out there that forgives my sins (as well as yours if you want it) is egotistical?

Isn’t it actually the other way around? To say that there is no intelligent being greater than you seems to me to be the egotistical statement.

On the topic of cheating, I am a grad. student at another university. I know all too well the pressures of being a grad. student. It is amazing how something that seems so black and white can become so gray when the students are struggling to make headway on a problem set. I am not saying cheating is right. By no means it is wrong but I do think that for some students a more explicit statement of what is off-limits is necessary. I have a lot of friends that would say that if it is not expressly forbidden then it is ok. I have had profesors say that you may use whatever resources are available because they don’t realize that an answer key is out on the web or even being passed down between older and younger students.

It is a shame that it has to be this way but in our society today it seems more often than not the individual isn’t liable for their own actions. If the coffee is hot but the cup doesn’t warn against that then it isn’t the drinker’s fault if they burn themselves. I do think it is sad that our society has come to this but for now all we can do is continue to play the game as it evolves.

Mitchell, at 10:04 am EDT on June 30, 2005

Cheating Scandal

As a graduate of the University of Virginia (M.Ed. ‘03) I was disappointed to read about this incident. During my time as a graduate student at UVA, references to the Honor Code was everywhere (Including posted on the walls of most classrooms). It was my experience that the vast majority of UVA students embrace and respect the Honor Code. While the Honor Code is not perfect, I suspect that it will work in this case and result in a number of students leaving the University to pursue their studies elsewhere. I also agree that there are more than 99 universities that have an Honor Code. A number of my friends are graduates of the Virginia Military Institute and their Honor Code (complete with the drumming out experience) may be one of the most rigid honor codes (along with the Citadel and other Service Acadamies)in the US.

Brian E. Campbell, Iowa State University, at 10:31 am EDT on June 30, 2005

Grading vs. learning

Most of us as instructors have two objectives when we give assignments: education and evaluation. For assignments intended primarily for evaluation, it makes sense that any outside materials must be off limits. But many instructors in advanced economics courses use homework primarily as a vehicle for students to use to solidify difficult analytical concepts. It is easy to imagine a situation in which graduate students who were stymied at the very beginning of a problem would learn a great deal more by using an answer key to get started, so that they could then understand the problem. If this is how the problems were being used in the course and how the students were using the solutions, I don’t see this as cheating.

Nonetheless, this kind of situation underscores the importance of being clear in what we, as instructors, permit and forbid.

Jeffrey Parker, at 11:14 am EDT on June 30, 2005

Um, stick to the issue?

I find it just a little surprising that not one of the responses I’ve read yet has seemed very mature. As graduate students and former graduate students, I expected one of you to say something a little less judgemental and a little more realistic—especially if you don’t know anything about UVA or its honor system. As a UVA undergrad student, I can say with confidence that the strict honor system UVA has established is respected and cherished by nearly all its students. The students value the “community of trust” and expect it to be upheld by their peers and instructors — Why else would an isolated incident of students obtaining answers online become such a big deal? Without a doubt, this form of dishonesty occurs at every institution—it would be ridiculous to hear this kind of story from a university with no honor code because obviously students are not being permanently expelled for their actions.On another note, dishonesty is going to exist in every community whether it be a community of Christians, Atheists, or Aliens for that matter. To say that believers are always honest is naive and elitist— It is a great misunderstanding to think that just because someone has been absolved of their sins that they no longer commit them. Becoming a Christian is not a transition into a state of perfection by any means! It is a recognition of the desperate state of humankind, it is admitting our perpetual unworthiness and acknowledging that without Christ, we would never have a fighting chance of gaining salvation.

haha, I guess I didn’t stick to the cheating issue at the end—just responding to those people who didn’t either!

Griffin, UVA, at 11:47 am EDT on June 30, 2005

perhaps as part of the honor code, they should make all UVA students pray, it seems that some feel that this would solve all of the problems with dishonesty in the world.

kevin, at 12:03 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

Honor Committee should be capitalized in this article, as it is a proper noun.

Grammar, at 12:48 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

Getting Help

As an instructor, I view homework as a practice tool, not a determination of mastery. Where does getting help from a classmate, tutor, textbook, or internet become “cheating” and getting help end? Which is better for homework — a roommate who works out the problem for them on the white board in their room or a student who gets an answer from the internet and works through the problem and figures out the result on their own? Faculty members should be technologically aware enough to know that there are materials available on the internet and either allow the use of the internet or state that the internet is off limits. I know what information is available for my classes on the internet and therefore make my tests the majority of my grade. As technology improves and more is available to students, faculty members should be clear and possibly not use take home assignments as their mode of evaluation. No matter how strict the honor code, few students have never asked a classmate or upperclassman for help, hired a tutor, or used the internet to get the answer to a question.

Candice, at 1:35 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

Cheating at UVA

Larry, Your comments about UVA students are based on very little evidence. As an alumna I’m always ashamed when I hear of cheating at UVA, but I know it is not pervasive. Cheating is very much looked down upon at UVA, and I doubt that you know many alumni who brag about cheating. If you are telling the truth, then I apologize for those alumni and want to assure you they are bad apples and their attitude is certainly not the norm. And as a UVA grad I know more about “the norm” at UVA than you do. Your assumptions are based on anecdotal evidence you’ve gathered from a few UVA alumni you know. I know a few Harvard alumni who admit to cheating, even gloat about it, but I would not assume that this attitude is pervasive among Harvard students. Your attacks seem to be motivated by personal prejudices.

Jennette, Jennette at UVA, at 1:46 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

As a current grad student in Economics, this should be a non-issue. Homeworks, in particular, but grades in general are for the most part completely meaningless for graduate work in Economics. You prove your knowledge with Prelims and your skill with your dissertation. Since you learn the skills to be an economist and grades hardly matter there is virtually no benefit from “cheating” on homework. (yes you still have to pass but you shouldn’t be there if you cant pass it)

Nick, at 3:35 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

As a 2002 alumna, I can say with authority that the vast majority of people at UVA believe strongly in the honor code. Of course there are always exceptions— in a university of over 18,000 undergrads & grads, you can’t avoid that. But the pervasive attitude around grounds is that cheating is disrespectful to yourself, your classmates, and the University. I didn’t fully appreciate this attitude until I came to another university, where I am now a Ph.D. student. Here, among the undergrads cheating almost seems like the rule rather than the exception— as T.A.’s, we’re told that a paper is very well written, we should google it—it’s probably plagiarized. I think the lax cheating policy here is to blame—I think UVA’s system should be used as a model.

lisa, at 5:14 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

If we are going to debate God in the context of UVA, please refer to Him by His given name of Thomas Jefferson so all of the Wahoos can properly follow along.

If these people are studying economics, they will theoretically be dealing at some point with the real-world free market economy. There is a lot of grey in that economy. I think they should give the student in question an “A” for finding a creative way to deal with the problem and then beat him soundly for sharing the information and giving up his competitive advantage.

I believe that TJ, as a proponent of capitalism and free market competition, would agree.

AK, at 5:51 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

School Prayer and Cheating

Don’t let the Christo-Fascists get by with another big lie about the school prayer decisions. When the Court struck down state-sponsored prayer and bible readings, they were only pervasive in the Northeast and the South. I grew up in profoundly virtuous, Lutheran Minnesota in the 1950’s and we NEVER prayed in school.

Jim, at 6:33 pm EDT on June 30, 2005

I taught at UVA from 1981-1986, and, despite many things I disliked about the institution, I believe that the vast majority of students took the honor code very seriously. I can think of only one instance during that time when I was suspicious of a student cheating (and, really, if you design your papers and tests properly—no multiple choice tests, very specific paper topics—you can cut down on cheating right at the start.

Jim, at 4:35 am EDT on July 1, 2005

Professor’s Responsibility

This is by no means a cheating incident nor a violation of the honor code. It is the responsibity of the professor to provide the guidelines for his or her course. Just as the students should have “known it was off-limits,” the professor should have “known” that a solution guide would be available either by the publisher or published on the web. In today’s internet savvy society you must assume that the information is available. In this case the professor is as much at fault for what he didn’t say. The professor should have made it clear that no solution guide to the problem sets was to be used. Then if the students used the solution guide, he or she would be in direct violation of the honor code and cheating. This appears to be a misunderstanding between the professor and his or her students

HH, at 1:11 pm EDT on July 1, 2005

Student responsibility

The idea, offered by HH, that it’s the professor’s responsibility to ward off student cheating through warnings is simply wrong. Students are bound by institutional academic misconduct codes (which may, or may not, be part of an “honor” code) at almost all schools, and, while it’s best practice to include some reference to that code and one’s more individual preferences about form of citation or consultation with others, it certainly does not excuse students from ignoring the institution’s rules. I cannot imagine that the students in question would not know that the use of such answers, and their distribution, would violate UVA’s code.

On the manner of school prayer, I have personally prosecuted several plagiarism cases and have had two different violators refer to their own religious practice or position (one was a church board president in his 50s) as a reason they could not have committed the act.

Finally, there is a new tool for faculty offered through Turnitin.com — which checks student submissions against an extensive database of electronic sources and papers from the term paper mills. It requires a little extra work for students to upload their papers to the site, but it issues a very nice report for instructors that notes any similarities with such sources.

Dan, Associate Professor at University of Utah, at 2:21 pm EDT on July 1, 2005

I’m a 4th-year econ student, and I’m rather surprised to read about an “uproar” over alleged cheating on homeworks at UVA. The job of a first-year student is to prepare herself for prelims. Certainly cheating on those is reprehensible, and expulsion is an appropriate penalty. It’s never even occurred to me, however, that there is a moral obligation to not make use of textbook answer keys. First-years assimilate huge amounts of information; some students do this best by following correct solutions through from start to finish. It is, from any practical perspective, entirely the student’s decision to make use of answer keys in studying or not. For an instructor to cry foul after “discovering” students using answer keys belies both a disturbing disconect from grad student life and an intellectual laziness in assigning someone else’s problems and complaining when students return someone else’s answers.

When homework is (correctly) seen as the means to the end of prelims (and eventually research), concerns about copying become irrelevant. One of the top students in my first-year class relied on answer keys to make it through his first year; that was how he studied best. He finished the first year being among the most prepared for prelims. Certainly there is the possibility of a student becoming dependent on answer keys, but this is not a moral issue and so is irrelevant to the present discussion.

Answer keys are readily available in any of the (several) econ grad programs I’m familiar with. If an econ student or a professor who used to be a student suggests he is not aware of this, he is probably lying. If instructors are uncomfortable with this, they should write their own problems; certainly textbook problems with answers will still be available for additional practice.

I did experience some cliques forming around answer keys when I was a first-year (John Morrow has written on this), which is clearly unfair. As such, if anyone needs a copy of MWG or Varian solutions, email me and I will mail you a cd.

Jeremy Sandford, University of Wisconsin, at 4:37 am EDT on August 4, 2005

i think that having the honor code is a great idea. if you worked hard enough to get into UVA then you should follow and respect there honor code. The internet is a great resource and students should be allowed to use it. Profesors should be aware that it is on the internet and if they feel its wrong to use it then not allow assignments to be done on the computer!

DD, at 10:05 pm EDT on September 25, 2006