Community Council Update

On Monday Nov. 5 the Community Council met to finalize the creation of the Residential Life Committee and speak with representatives of the Honor Code Review regarding its plans for this year.

The constitution of the Honor Code mandates that a committee be created every four years with the purpose of reviewing the language and effectiveness of the Honor Code, making appropriate alterations when necessary.

This year the committee is comprised of Karen Guttentag, associate dean of judicial affairs and student life, Holly Allen, assistant professor of American studies, Steve Abbott, professor of mathematics, and students Amy Schlueter ’13, Jackie Yordan ’13 and Matt Ball ’14.

The 2012-2013 Honor Code Review Committee is considering four honor code related issues: turnitin.com, orienting new students to the honor code policy, faculty support and communication of expectations.

Turnitin.com is a service that checks written work for plagiarism — a service that could make the process of checking student work much less time consuming for faculty members.

“One of the issues that is really challenging for faculty members when checking student work for plagiarism is that it is a very onerous process. We are exploring if [turnitin.com] is a reasonable resource to invest in,” explained Guttentag.

“I’ve come across some fairly egregious cases of academic dishonesty and I know faculty members who won’t take the time to track down plagiarism because it is overwhelming,” said Allen.

“But having these practices and knowing there is consistency among the faculty that shows we are all on the same page may help create a climate of academic honesty,”

Some student members of Community Council were less supportive of the online tool, explaining that they felt as though such tools undermine the trust between students and faculty, so central to the Middlebury experience.

“The reason in my mind that we have an honor code is trust. Professors trust students to do their own work and students feel and recognize that,” said Barrett Smith ’13, student co-chair of community council.

“Turnitin.com and tools like it undermine that trust. This is a system that is built entirely on respect that is built between faculty and students.”

Aside from Turnitin.com, the Honor Code Review Committee is looking at ways to successfully orient first year students with the honor code. The committee has suggested creating an honor code video comprised of student interviews in which current students describe what the honor code means to them.

The group would also like to create an online tutorial for citations — one of the most common sources of academic honor code violations for students.

Lastly, the committee would like to review and expand on the language of the code.

“We are looking to create broad enough definitions so that they encompass the many forms of academic dishonesty,” explained Allen.

“I have been charged with the task of looking at how different schools define academic dishonestly. And many schools do have more comprehensive definitions.”

The introduction to Middlebury’s honor code outlines three prohibited activities: plagiarism, cheating and duplicate production of work. Yet Guttentag believes that other forms of academic dishonesty may be worthy of consideration.

“There is also the fabrication of data, having someone sign you into to a lecture that you did not attend, or lying about when you turned a paper in,” she explained.

The Honor Code Review Committee will continue to examine the code through the year and Community Council will review any proposed changes.

“If we are giving the students the tools they need and it is being expanded on in classes, especially first-year seminars, I think it would make a huge difference” concluded Shirley Collado, dean of the college.