OP-ED Maintaining academic integrity

Author: Honor Code Review Committee

We write to introduce you to the work of the 2008-09 Honor Code Review Committee, and to invite your participation in our review process in the months ahead.

In 1963, Middlebury College students developed and implemented an Honor Code that was introduced with the following preamble: "The students of Middlebury College believe that individual undergraduates must assume responsibility for their own integrity on all assigned academic work. This constitution has been written and implemented by students in a community of individuals that values academic integrity as a way of life. The Middlebury student body, then, declares its commitment to an honor system that fosters moral growth and to a code that will not tolerate academic dishonesty in the College community." The spirit of this code is simple in structure: the faculty agrees not to proctor in-class exams and to offer take-home exams, and in exchange for the trust of their professors, the student body agrees to uphold academic integrity in their work and in the work of their peers.

The Honor Code's constitution requires that every four years, a review committee "shall examine the honor system and its operation and make any appropriate recommendations for revision to the faculty and the Community Council." The review committee must consist of a member of the dean of the College staff, two faculty members appointed by Faculty Council, and two students, one of whom must be the co-chair of the Academic Judicial Board.

As the committee's charge is fairly broad, it has been up to each group to shape its focus to reflect the current campus environment and concerns. As the College community has historically expressed overall satisfaction with the presence of an honor code, past review processes have been focused on the effective administration of this system, and on how best to support community adherence to its principles.

Our current environment, however, requires that our committee broaden our scope of inquiry. At the April 2008 faculty meeting, several professors expressed concerns about the presence of cheating in the classroom and raised the possibility of returning to a system of proctoring exams. An energetic discussion ensued that revealed that a portion of Middlebury's faculty have significant reservations about the extent to which students are not only doing honest work themselves, but are proctoring each other, as the Honor Code requires. Those present voted to delay faculty action to allow the Honor Code Review Committee to conduct its scheduled review in the current year in hope that this issue would be thoroughly explored.

We therefore cannot take for granted at the outset of our work that there is universal campus support for the continued presence of an honor code. As a result, we undertake this review process not to answer the question of how best to strengthen Middlebury's Honor Code, but how best to strengthen the practice of academic integrity at Middlebury. Our recommendations may fall into one of three categories: we may recommend strengthening the promotion and administration of the existing Honor Code; we may recommend amending it to adjust its policies and/or introduce new ones; or we may recommend abandoning it if other approaches to upholding academic integrity appear more promising.

Our success in developing these recommendations will be dependent upon the candid and thoughtful engagement of the entire Middlebury community. We anticipate an agenda that will involve multiple and ongoing opportunities for input from students, faculty and staff, including focus groups, individual conversations, and open campus meetings. We commit to providing regular updates of our work and projections for our next steps, and to listening carefully and objectively to all who share their thoughts with us.

You will be hearing more details from us in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we thank you in advance for your participation in this vital community conversation.


The 2008-09 honor code
review committee:

Jamal Davis '11

Karen Guttentag,
Associate Dean of the College

Jessica Holmes,
Assistant Professor of Economics

Alex Schloss '09.5

Jacob Tropp,
Associate Professor of History