The Committee on Organization and Policy met yesterday to discuss the results of questionnaires sent to students and faculty members last term to assess the effectiveness of the College's Academic Honor Principle.
COP Chair and Geography Professor Richard Barff said the results of the questionnaire are "encouraging" but declined to give specific details until the committee meets again in two weeks.
"There is quite a lot of unanimity in how the faculty perceives the honor principle and how the students perceive the honor principle," Barff said. "This is a good sign."
The questionnaire, sent to 800 random undergraduates in the Winter term, asked students how thoroughly they have been informed about the honor principle, what they thought constituted violations of the principle and what they would do if they witnessed such violations.
The questionnaire sent to all faculty members was similar to the one sent to students but also asked faculty members their views of the Committee on Standards and its penalties for honor principle violations. The COS is the College's undergraduate judicial body.
The survey is the result of a request made by Dean of the College Lee Pelton, who chairs the COS, to the COP to gather information about attitudes toward the honor principle among students and faculty. The COP is a committee comprised of faculty members from various academic departments that considers policies that affect the entire faculty.
The survey was broken down into quantitative and qualitative areas of analysis, but the qualitative responses have not yet been examined, Barff said. The COP plans to meet again in two weeks to discuss the questionnaire and gather Pelton's opinions about the results, he said.
"The general gist is that we see the results as an important reaffirmation of the honor principle, but there are places where it can be improved," Barff said.
Other members of the COP declined to comment.
The Academic Honor Principle has not been changed since it was unanimously approved by the faculty on Feb. 13, 1962.
