"Fundamental to the principle of independent learning are the requirements of honesty and integrity in the performance of academic assignments both in the classroom and outside."
The academic honor principle is a pillar which upholds the basic educational mission of the College. It is as vital to the proper functioning of Dartmouth as an institution as the Constitution is to the proper functioning of the country.
Subverting the honor code is necessarily the most egregious academic crime a student can commit here. Students who flout the rules are suspended for multiple terms. Professors who tolerate this behavior -- and tacitly admit they will do nothing to stop it -- are shunning their responsibility to ensure unaided academic excellence.
By ignoring widespread allegations of cheating in his English 68 class, Professor Jeffrey Hart belittles the basic educational purpose to which he has dedicated his life. In the course of one term, Hart mocked the school's honor code, required scant work from his students and used his last lecture as a sort of circus finale in which he drank, told crude jokes and behaved in a manner quite unbecoming of a serious-minded academic.
The Dean of Faculty is right to launch an investigation into the allegations of cheating in English 68. But the damage is already done. Dartmouth deserved better.
