Dartmouth’s current academic honor principle is both a largely archaic and a very naive policy.
The current academic honor principle is based on a resolution passed unanimously by the faculty of the College on Feb. 13, 1962. According to the student handbook, on Feb. 1, 1962, “a majority vote of the student body adopted the principle that ‘all academic activities will be based on student honor’ and thereby accepted the responsibility, individually and collectively, to maintain and perpetuate the principle of academic honor.”
Key to this resolution was the following point: “the faculty of Dartmouth College, in recognizing the responsibility of students for their own education, assumes intellectual honesty and integrity in the performance of academic assignments, both in the classroom and outside.” Although idealistically this sounds wonderful, this sort of view is both overly trusting and troublesome. It ignores the reality that cheating and academic dishonesty are serious problems at Dartmouth. While I do not believe Dartmouth is unique in this issue, Dartmouth should not turn a blind eye to the issue.
As a member of the Committee on Standards, I have served on many cases. Almost all of the cases I have seen in connection to academic dishonesty are cases which are not necessarily large violations, but that are flagrant and obvious violations. I have always had the impression that the cases which actually make it to the Committee on Standards are exceptional — someone had to have done something quite egregiously obvious to have had the attention of the Committee on Standards turned upon them. There seems to be the view, however, that academic honor cases before the Committee on Standards are exceptional, in the sense that they are wildly aberrant and out of line with the broader community. In my opinion, this is absolutely false. As far as the academic culture at the College is concerned, these cases are more likely the exception than the rule. Regardless of how often they reach the Committee on Standards, there are likely many other cases that are not flagrant enough to come to the professors attention.
I think an analogy can be drawn from a statistic regarding DUIs. Consider that the average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before his or her first arrest. Academic dishonesty cases that come before the Committee on Standard are likely the one in 80 in which individuals are “caught” (for lack of a better word.) When one considers that the academic honor cases that the Committee on Standards sees in a year are very likely only an extremely small percentage of the incidents of academic dishonesty that actually occur, it becomes apparent how systemic academic dishonesty is at Dartmouth.
Our honor principle goes on to explicitly state that “the practice of proctoring examinations is hereby discontinued, though a teacher may be present at appropriate times for the purpose of administration or to answer questions.” This is perhaps the most ridiculous statement within the academic honor principle. Is the ACT, SAT, GRE, MCAT or any other exam of importance left un-proctored? No. Because the reality is that people try to cheat. The College has ignored this reality long enough. Students interested in academic honesty should support an end to this injustice. When students can cheat, it undermines the legitimate work of the majority of students who have put time and effort into preparing for exams. This change should also be supported by faculty who still believe that the College should give all an equal chance, and not an advantage to those who would take a morally low road. To preface our academic honor principle with “the faculty of Dartmouth College, in recognizing the responsibility of students for their own education” is a little like if the police were to say “we’re not going to do our jobs — we recognize the responsibility of the collective community to take care of itself.” Faculty of Dartmouth, do not put the onus of regulating academic honesty onto the students. While many students chose to ignore the academic honor principle, so do the faculty. Take steps to “promote procedures and circumstances which will reinforce the principle of academic honor.” Without this foundation, the malfeasance of a certain percentage of students goes unchecked. Amend the academic honor principle to align with reality.
