Administrators Seek Input from Harvard Community about Creating First Honor Code

In a round of discussions led by administrators this past week, the Committee on Academic Integrity began a “consulting phase” to solicit feedback from members of the Harvard community on its proposal to create the College’s first ever honor code and establish a Student/Faculty Judicial Board for academic dishonesty cases.

In an emailed statement, Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education Katherine Stanton wrote that the committee invited each House to host a discussion on the progress report in an effort to “hear a response from the entire academic community.”

As part of the initiative, Dean of Undergraduate Education Jay M. Harris also emailed the committee’s report directly to students on Friday, asking for their input through an online message board.

House Masters, Resident Deans, and members of the committee arranged meetings in Adams, Kirkland, Leverett, Currier, and Pforzheimer Houses last week and in Mather and Cabot Houses Sunday evening. The sessions marked the first opportunity for public scrutiny of the committee’s work, which began almost three years ago at the behest of the Committee on Undergraduate Education.

Several students who attended the meetings in their respective Houses expressed concerns regarding the creation of an honor code, with many saying that they did not believe it would change current trends of cheating and collusion at the College.

“In our discussion, the biggest issue with an honor code was that students would cheat not because they didn’t honor academic integrity, but because they were over-committed,” said Raja F. Ghawi ’15, who was present at the Kirkland session. “Having an honor code won’t change that. You won’t really care about an honor code at 4 or 5 a.m.”

Ghawi added that having students commit to an honor code that they would eventually break defeats the purpose of the “declaration of integrity” outlined by the committee.

“Having people commit to an honor code that they’re probably going to break turns them into liars,” he said.

Harvard faced similar criticisms in 2011 when the Freshman Dean’s Office invited first-year students to sign a “freshman pledge,” which asked students to “commit to upholding the values of the College.”

Conversely, proponents of the honor code said that the measures outlined constituted a step in the right direction in the discussion on academic integrity.

“[An honor code] seems pretty successful in most places that use it,” said Samuel M. Meyer ’13, who is a Currier House Committee co-chair. “I don’t see a substantial problem with it.”

Darragh Nolan ’15, a student member of the committee who attended Kirkland’s meeting, said that he did not hear any constructive criticism leveled against the proposal.

“Students just said that this won’t work and it won’t change anything,” he said, emphasizing the importance of concrete suggestions on how the report could be improved.

Nolan said that the committee’s efforts to obtain community input on the report are part of a “consulting phase” in the adoption of the proposal, and not simply a response to recent events involving academic integrity such as the Government 1310 cheating scandal.

On the online forum, some students said that they were “impressed” by the proposal while others said that the University should recognize the role that apathetic instruction plays in promoting academic dishonesty.

Benjamin S. Raderstorf ’14 posted on the discussion board that he felt an honor code focused only on students was simply a “smokescreen” hiding “deeper problems” regarding academic integrity.

Nolan said that the committee does not have a specific time frame for finalizing the proposal. After community feedback is collected, the proposal will be modified again before being sent to the Committee on Undergraduate Education for approval, he said. To be officially included in the handbook, faculty must vote on the final proposal.

—Staff writer Michelle Denise L. Ferreol can be reached at mferreol@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @michiferreol.

—Staff writer Jared T. Lucky can be reached at lucky@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @jared_lucky.