Following last year's cheating allegations against 78 members of a Computer Science 4 class, the start of the new academic calendar has seen invigorated efforts at preventing such a recurrence and improving understanding of just what the College's elusive Honor Principle means.
Although the College has not changed the substance of the Honor Principle in any way, what is different this year is the attention that the code is drawing from offices all over campus.
Faculty, returning students and incoming freshmen have all been targeted in new ways, marking perhaps the largest effort at addressing academic integrity in recent years.
In addition to emphasizing the Honor Code at seminars for faculty and department chairs, the Dean of the Faculty Office is currently drafting a guidebook for professors, particularly those that are teaching at Dartmouth as visitors.
Many returning students were surprised to find a copy of the Honor Code in their Hinman Boxes this fall, the first time the publication has been sent to upperclassmen.
As for the Class of 2004, both freshmen and their parents received information about the Honor Principle before arriving in Hanover. In addition, academic integrity received more attention than usual during Orientation activities this year.
"I'd like to think that we can take some lessons from what happened last year," Dean of the College James Larimore said.
While last year's CS4 incident was indeed an aberration in the College's disciplinary history, it nonetheless served as both a wake-up call and an embarrassment for the administration, garnering negative headlines throughout the country.
Visiting professor Rex Dwyer initially accused 78 students of cheating on a homework assignment, only to leave the College in disgrace after they were all exonerated. While it was clear that some students did cheat, the Committee on Standards decided it was too difficult to determine who they were without violating personal privacy.
Perhaps what makes the effort to prevent dishonesty so difficult is the ambiguity inherent in the Honor Principle itself, said Assistant Dean of First-Year Students Leigh Remy, who coordinates First-Year Orientation.
"So what we try to do is tell students that it's a principle, and it's something you need to be thinking about as you enter each class," she said. "They really need to be taking responsibility to see how individual faculty members interpret it."
Remy said there are limitations to addressing the Honor Principle during such times as Orientation.
"The reality is that during Orientation students are given a lot of information. Part of it is just opening up the conversation, getting the basic facts out, and speaking to them," she said.
Other methods the College is considering employing to combat academic dishonesty is inviting the Center for Academic Integrity to audit the campus and review Dartmouth's attitude toward the Honor Principle.
"I'm pretty sure we will be using some kind of data gathering later this year" to gauge student and faculty attitudes, Larimore said.
