By Amanda Heiner
The Honor Code at BYU is such a large part of the school''s academia, it is hard to imagine college life without it.
Students may believe that the Honor Code is unique to BYU, but there''s been an increasing number of schools nationwide adopting their own honor codes.
After an episode of campus-wide cheating at Kansas State University in 1994, students lobbied for the institution of an honor code, in order to legitimize their degree.
Helene Marcoux, PhD, a graduate teaching assistant at KSU for their undergraduate honor system said, 'The cheating was huge in the news, it went primetime. Some of our students spoke up, we talked to the provost, and with his strong support we created our honor code five years later.'
The success of any universities'' honor code is difficult to measure since it is unlikely to detect how much cheating is going on and consequently, what percentage of that category is being caught.
There have been an increased number of reported honor code violations at KSU. That in itself is unfortunate, but it also means more students are aware of the honor code and have the desire to stop the violations from continuing.
Marcoux said, 'What we have seen is the number of cases has gone up each year, probably because people are more aware of it, and are reporting it more.'
Once a student is caught, they are reprimanded, typically with an 'XF' on their transcript. The F is their grade in the course and the X represents an honor code violation.
The student may take a one-credit class, the 'Academic Integrity Seminar,' taught by Marcoux, to remove the X from their transcript.
'There have been about 40 students who have taken the class and we''ve had a lot of positive feedback,' Marcoux said.
HIPE, honesty and integrity peer educators is a group of students at KSU that works to educate the student population about the honor code.
'Up to this point, there''s been a small cadre of people in the honor code office, and educating 17,000 students is quite difficult,' Marcoux said.
HIPE was created two and a half years ago and has helped inform students of the new honor code, a daunting task for a small campus honor code office.
In light of recent scandals, Marcoux said the honor code 'is changing the culture on campus. We''re hearing more about it, and there''s been more ethical dialogue, especially in light of Enron.'
KSU has chosen to separate their academic honor code from a code of conduct that covers, 'anything aside from academics,' said Marcoux.
KSU''s honor code is simple, 'On my honor, as a student, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this academic work.'
Each university with an honor code has developed different reprimands for students who violate the statues of the code.
Jody Nyberg, judicial assistant for Stanford University said that the standard university sanction a student can expect is a 'one quarter suspension and forty hours of community service, it could be less, it could be more.'
Stanford uses a judicial system where students are brought in for a hearing before a board of four students, and two faculty and staff members.
Students become members by applying to a student organization where they are interviewed and then appointed by Stanford''s provost.
Nyberg sets up all the hearings and approves the community service a student chooses to complete. Nyberg also acts as a counselor to help students return to good standing by university standards by fulfilling the sanctions.
The student has limited time to complete the requirements the judicial board has set. Nyberg said, 'community service is due at the end of the next quarter enrolled.'
There is some leeway for those students who are over-committed.
Nyberg meets with students who have violated the honor code and works out a fair amount of time to give the students the opportunity to complete the reprimand. Nyberg said, 'it wouldn''t be likely to give them a sanction where it would keep them from being successful.'
That way, students can be in good standing with the university again and keep up with their academic demands during the quarter.
Even after the violation is addressed and the sanction completed, students will have the violation''s record on their transcript permanently.
The BYU Law School Admissions Office recommends admitting any past violation with any undergrad schools honor code on the application.
If the Law School finds out retroactively about any violation, it could prohibit students from taking the bar exam. However, if the student leaves their undergrad university in good standing, it''s unlikely the violation would keep them out of graduate school.
Graduate schools look at each honor code individually, since all schools have different rules to abide by. University of Maryland students are asked to write the pledge by hand to promote a period of serious reflection at the end of an academic exercise.
Students are free to decline to write or sign the pledge, and are not to be penalized for exercising that right on campus. However, all students are subject to the Code of Academic Integrity, whether they write and sign the pledge or not.
Regardless of future obligations to graduate schools, students should remember the meaning behind honor codes.
A student''s commitment is indicative of their own honor and the weight they put in their word.