New honor code to be promoted

March 27, 2006 —

Those walking around campus next month will likely be seeing posters and other propaganda promoting academic integrity and the Student Association's recently passed student honor code.

The code, which was passed at the Feb. 13 general House meeting, was written by the Academic and Leadership Development (ALD) committee within SA and will be heavily promoted throughout the University in the upcoming year.

According to Kelly Stewart, the ALD committee chair, there is a SA-funded campaign designed by University Communications that will feature posters for each college at the University, an academic integrity banner for students to sign, and the honor code itself.

The code consists of four sections that are designed to show students what their peers expect of them.

It begins by stating, "As a student at Saginaw Valley State University:" then goes into each section, the first of which states, "I am committed to upholding a high standard of academic integrity in all of my work, inside and outside of the classroom. Out of respect for my peers, professors, institution, and self, I will complete all tasks honestly and to the best of my ability."

Stewart points to the last section of the code as most important to her but also stresses that the third section, which mentions giving or receiving "unauthorized assistance" on class work, as essentially the requirement of the code - the part students have to abide by.

While it will be in the Student Code of Conduct, the code in and of itself is not something that can be enforced; a policy that has been developed by the Academic Integrity Taskforce but has not been passed yet will be the policy that enforces academic honesty and coincides with the honor code.

The notion of an honor code was first mentioned by the Taskforce, which was created late in the Winter 2005 semester. Stewart says both faculty and students researched academic integrity on the SVSU campus as well as honor codes at universities throughout the country.

The Taskforce enlisted the help of SA and the SVSU chapter of Alpha Chi, the National College Honor Scholarship Society, to push the issue. When SA developed the ALD committee last summer, it wrote into its by-laws that part of the committee's responsibilities would be promoting academic integrity.

"We didn't know how or when that would happen, but we knew it was on the list of things to do," Stewart says.

She adds that when Alpha Chi announced it would be bringing in Don McCabe, a leading academic integrity researcher who specializes in honor codes, to campus, "that's where a little bit of our inspiration came from."

McCabe, who ultimately visited the campus on Tuesday, Jan. 31, believes that if an honor code is going to be instituted at a university, that it needs to come from the students.

"All the research says that it has come from the students, it has come from the bottom up," Stewart says. "If it's something the administration is trying to impose on the students, it just doesn't work."

Stewart and many others felt an honor code was certainly needed. She says she has not talked to any student on campus who did not know of a student who has cheated in the past.

"On top of that," she adds, "you won't find a single student who has turned that person in or said something to that person."

She says that is where the honor code comes in.

"It's letting your peers know that it matters to you and you're holding them to this standard," she explains.

Once the committee decided to create the code, it had to decide on a format. In their research of honor codes nationwide, the students discovered types that ranged from "one line that goes on the bottom of every paper, to an extended statement, to a 10-page policy on what is expected of students," Stewart says.

The committee ultimately decided on the extended statement format.

"We decided that what would be best for the way the culture is at SVSU right now would be to go with a paragraph-long statement that outlines what we expect from our peers," Stewart explains.

Despite the fact that the code essentially cannot be enforced, Stewart believes the code has an important meaning.

She believes that a positive culture needs to be established before a code or policy is enforced and that the honor code is the first step in that direction.

Stewart comes back to the fourth section of the code, which states, "I seek to maintain the honor of a Saginaw Valley State University degree, and I will preserve its value throughout my professional career."

The official campaign emphasizes academic integrity by stating, "It matters now because it matters later." Stewart says the slogan refers to real world perception of SVSU and its students.

"When I graduate from SVSU I want my degree to mean something," she says. "I don't want there to be a stigma on the name of SVSU."

She gives the example of a student who cons his or her way through college by downloading papers and cheating on exams. This student, Stewart says, will most likely continue these habits in the real world, thus causing employers to shy away from hiring SVSU alumni in the future.

"That reflects poorly on me and everyone else, and that is something that should concern students," she adds.

Stewart says the honor code discourages cases like this.

"If we are consistently putting graduates out into the workforce that have a high level of integrity and employers are taking note of that, then maybe they will start saying, 'I really want to start hiring more SVSU graduates,'" Stewart explains. "That's what we're working towards; that's the culture we're trying to create."

She is also optimistic about the student response to the code. Because it will be a first at SVSU, Stewart admits some students will question its purpose but that most will embrace it.

"A lot of students will say, 'okay, great, what am I supposed to do with this?'" she says. "At the same time, I think there are enough students on this campus that will think, 'it is about time, why don't we have something like this already?'"

The final step, Stewart says, is ensuring that the code will last and will not simply be forgotten in the next several years.

A resolution to amend SA by-laws is expected to be passed tonight at SA's general House meeting, making it the ALD committee's responsibility to promote the honor code.

Stewart is not running for a position on SA next year, but feels the resolution ensures the code is not forgotten.

"We don't expect this to be something that is short term or something that is forgotten," she says. "It is something that will continue for years down the road."