The Committee on Organization and Policy recently sent out questionnaires to students and faculty to assess the effectiveness of the College's Academic Honor Principle.
Eight-hundred random undergraduates received the questionnaire, which asked how thoroughly they have been informed about the honor principle in class, what they believe would violate the principle and if they would report such violations.
The questionnaire sent to all faculty members was similar to the one sent to students. But it also asked faculty members their views of the Committee on Standards and its penalties for honor principle violations. The COS is the undergraduate judicial body.
The survey follows a request made by Dean of the College Lee Pelton, who chairs the COS, to the COP to gauge attitudes toward the principle among faculty and students. The COP is a faculty committee that considers policies that affect the entire faculty.
French and Italian Professor Virginia Swain, chair of the COP, said the questionnaires are primarily geared to discover faculty attitudes toward the honor principle.
"I think it's really a question of how important [the Honor Principle] is to the faculty and are they making it clear to the students if they think it is important," Swain said.
Pelton said he asked the COP to examine how well students are informed about the principle, how frequently faculty report cases of academic dishonesty to the COS and also areas where the proper application of the honor principle is not clear, such as take-home assignments.
Swain said she does not know what the COP will do with the findings, which she said will take several weeks to tabulate.
"I think the committee is really going to wait and see," she said. "If it turns out to be a nonevent, if there's really nothing to it, I don't see why we'd make any kind of a report."
The Academic Honor Principle has not changed since it was originally approved unanimously by the faculty on Feb. 13, 1962.
Last year, at a meeting of academic department chairs, Pelton said there had been a "fairly large increase" in academic dishonesty cases before the COS .
Pelton said the surveys results will shape any ensuing actions regarding the honor principle.
"This data will be important and it will shape whatever our next steps will be," he said.
