Khurana Will Chair Honor Council

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana will serve as the ex officio chair of the College’s Honor Council, which will adjudicate cases of academic dishonesty next year, and has had conversations with faculty members about potentially serving on the body.

Khurana also chairs the College’s Administrative Board, which currently hears cheating cases.

The College’s first honor code, which the Faculty of Arts and Sciences approved last May, will go into effect next fall. A student-faculty body composed of 12 undergraduates and 12 other members that may include faculty, staff, and teaching fellows, will hear cases of alleged violations of the policy. The College named the 12 undergraduates who will sit on the Council in mid-March.

In an interview Tuesday, Khurana said he hopes to formally appoint the second half of the student-faculty judicial body by the end of the summer.

Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana will chair the College's Honor Council. By Jennifer Y Yao

“I’ve spoken to a variety of different people regarding the Honor Council,” he said. “The approach that our office takes is we try not to make everything set in stone,” he later added when prompted on additional details.

Since appointed to positions on the Council, undergraduate members have been attending weekly training sessions featuring discussions of mock cases.

In the Honor Council’s first training session, Khurana spoke to undergraduates. He wrote in an email last week that he “described the College’s mission” and “asked the students to share [ideas] for strengthening the culture of academic integrity and how we could support their work.”

Honor Council member Nathaniel R. F. Bernstein ’17 said last week that the Council was “very charged up” by Khurana’s talk.

The Faculty are expected to vote on the affirmation of integrity statement portion of the honor code at its next meeting on April 7. If approved in the form recently distributed to faculty members, students would be required to sign a statement affirming their “awareness of” the honor code when they register and on final exams, projects, and papers.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokespeople Anna Cowenhoven and Rachael Dane attended The Crimson’s interview with Khurana.

—Staff writer Noah J. Delwiche can be reached at noah.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @ndelwiche.

—Staff writer Ivan B. K. Levingston can be reached at Ivan.Levingston@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @IvanLevingston.