This is part four of five in a series of posts on Honor Code Committees.

High school students often hear from chagrined teachers, “When you go to college, _____________ won’t fly!”. What fits in that blank? All manner of executive functions (e.g., showing up on time, turning in work in a timely manner, attention to detail, self-sufficiency) fit the bill, as do other academic activities, such as “open note tests”, “extra credit”, and plagiarism.

The last one example is potentially the most serious and far-reaching in terms of consequences for your scholars. In this series of posts, I am going to explore the role and purpose of honor committees in higher education from the perspective of a former K12 teacher and university professor who has served on these committees. You can provide these articles to your scholars for important background information about potential consequences of academic misconduct in higher education. 

Part 4 – What kinds of decisions do Honor Committees make?

In our previous posts we have explored what Honor Committees are, how they conduct business, and what kinds of behavior constitutes academic misconduct. In this week’s post we will explore the kind of decisions that Honor Committees make after adjudicating events.

Remember, the primary purpose of an Honor Committee is to uphold the Honor Code of the institution it represents. Therefore, the kinds of decisions that the Honor Committee makes are highly dependent upon the Honor Code. There are no standard rules or procedures outlining how Honor Committees must act. This means that the decisions these kinds of committees make from one institution to another are highly variable. However, Honor Committees generally seek to both uphold the Honor Code through a mixture of sanctions and (re)educational solutions.

For example, say an Honor Committee has found that a student engaged in academic misconduct, specifically plagiarism on a term paper. The decision the Honor Committee has made is that the student is guilty of academic misconduct. The sanction is the action the Honor Committee takes to address the behavior and uphold the Honor Code. If the sanction is punitive the goal is that the punishment is a deterrent to future academic misconduct from the student and their peers. If the sanction is educational, the goal is that the sanction serves to redirect student behavior in the future, while upholding the goal of the Honor Code. 

For this example, let’s imagine that the specific example of plagiarism was a small portion of the paper, and from a student without a previous record of engaging in academic misconduct. In this case, the Honor Committee might decide that the student would be best served with further education about academic integrity rather than a sanction such as academic probation or expulsion. The Honor Committee might require the student to enroll in – for a fee – an academic integrity workshop offered by the institution and pass it by a certain date. If the student completes this requirement then they have addressed the concerns of the Honor Committee and they are considered in good standing with the institution.

Let’s consider another example. A pair of students have been determined to have engaged in an elaborate contract cheating ring. They have been paying a third-party service to write papers for one of the core classes in their major, and selling the papers to peers. Individually, each student has already been referred to the Honor Committee for previous academic misconduct offenses, although they did not receive sanctions. Given their previous history, and the severity of this offense, the Honor Committee might decide that more serious sanctions are in order. For the student who facilitated the contract cheating ring, the Committee might place them on strict academic probation. This means that they will be limited to the number and kinds of classes they are permitted to take, and not permitted to engage in extracurricular activities on campus. For the student who handled the financial and logistical aspects of this offense, the Committee might determine that the offense is serious enough to warrant expulsion from the institution. This means that the student must leave the institution and may not complete their studies or participate in campus activities.

The largest determinants of an Honor Committee’s decision are the severity of the offense and the record of the alleged offender. The primary concern of the Committee is upholding the Honor Code. Having a diverse Honor Committee, composed of a mixture of faculty, staff and students, helps ensure that all viewpoints are considered during the adjudication process. Sanctions are not given lightly, and generally are saved for the most egregious offenses. Yet, the consequences from the offender’s perspective can be quite severe. 

In our next and final post in this series I will consider the question, “Why do students engage in academic misconduct”? Understanding why students continue to engage in these practices despite the consequences is key to addressing this behavior writ large. 

Thank you for joining the discussion! As always, please share your experiences, questions, and wonderments in the comments below!