February
2012
To: All
Members of the Faculty
From: Cheryl
Shanks
Faculty
Chair, Honor Committee
Subject: Honor Code Guidelines: A Request
Academic honesty is central to life at Williams. Because faculty are ultimately in charge of
what is permissible in any given class, the system depends on faculty to be as
explicit as possible about what is permitted and what is banned; this means
providing specific examples as well as general guidelines. This helps us in
cases involving students who knowingly handed in work that is not (all) their
own as well as those involving students who were confused about where exactly
the bar was. That latter category has
grown as faculty increasingly encourage students to work together in some ways
but bar them from collaborating in others, or ask students to use some forms of
technology but not others. Additionally,
the lines that faculty draw in Spanish, philosophy, physics and art history
differ, but a given student is likely to be enrolled in all of these
departments at once.
Help Us
Prevent Violations
To prevent violations, we ask that you explain to
your students how the Honor Code applies to their work in each course and that
you do so as explicitly as possible. Please
reiterate how it applies to a given assignment when handing out instructions
for that assignment. Please give
guidelines on the following, if relevant:
Collaboration with classmates
If all papers and lab exercises are to be the work
of an individual, remind students of this. Please do remind your students that the Honor
Code applies as much to response papers, lab reports, and ungraded work as it
does to term papers and exams. If
students are allowed or encouraged to work with others, do they also have to
acknowledge them? If they need to
acknowledge others, does this mean simply recording classmates’ names or does
it also involve identifying the shared idea?
Does working together to draft a response using the computer, then
emailing the draft to everyone, violate the injunction that one’s written work
needs to be one’s own? Where exactly is
that line?
Use of outside resources
If students are allowed to use some resources but
not others, please make the distinction clear.
May course readings and the student’s own class notes be supplemented by
classmates’ notes? By published
interpretation and criticism not assigned in class? By talking to their mom? By Wikipedia?
Use of technology
Please make clear whether students are allowed to
use smartphones or laptops, or to check their answers using reference books or
technology, before handing in homework (as well as during class and on
exams). May they use the iPhone’s clock
function? The calculator?
Citation style
Sometimes when faculty ask students to write about a
specific text or phenomenon, they allow the students to refer informally to
that text. If everyone has read the same
edition of Don Quixote, it might be acceptable for the student to refer to its
page numbers without providing a full reference; the same might apply to
articles from an assigned reading packet.
Sometimes faculty require a full, formal citation. Making the required form clear, especially by
using it to reference readings on the syllabus, is helpful. Do online response essays need formal citations? Ungraded responses? If formality varies, explain when and
why. Please help get across to them that
the style of a citation is not as important as the fact that the citation is
provided. Using the wrong style is not
an honor code violation. Failing to
provide a citation is.
Common knowledge
Students increasingly claim that they neglected to
cite something because the ideas they drew from it were "common
knowledge." This is hardly ever
accurate. The common-knowledge rule of
thumb applies to public facts--the US has 50 states, the Archduke was
assassinated in 1914--not to interpretations, statistics, or even to particular
formulations/phrasings of those facts.
The content, for example, of Wikipedia and Sparknotes is proprietary,
not common knowledge, and data drawn from the statistical handbook that the US
Census Bureau puts out every year are the product of specific work, though they
are in the public domain. Getting this
across to students would be a big help.
Handling a
Possible Violation
An important principle of fairness is that like
violations be treated in a like fashion.
This is why the honor committee, rather than an individual, determines
whether violations occurred and assesses sanctions. Therefore, if you have any reason to question
a student’s academic honesty, you should not try to resolve the issue yourself
but should contact me directly. If one
student in your class suspects another of cheating and contacts you, both you
and the worried student should get in touch with the committee. Do not discuss the matter with the student. The student chair of the honor committee
and I will then meet with you to review the problem and decide whether this
should be brought forward.
Please feel free to contact me. I’m in 311 Hollander Hall and my number is
x2102. The committee and I thank you for
your cooperation during this busy time of year.
The honor committee is collecting examples of
instructions to provide as a resource to faculty. If you have any instructions longer than a sentence
that you would be willing to share, we would appreciate receiving them. Please fill out the form on the reverse side
and send it to Dean Bolton by Friday, February 24th. She will pass it on to the Honor Committee.
HONOR CODE
INFORMATION
TO: Sarah Bolton, Dean of the College, Hopkins Hall
FROM: [Instructor's Name] _______________________________
[1] Papers, exams, laboratory exercises, and other work in the following courses are all to be done individually. I have called the attention of my students to the statement on "Academic Honesty and Honor Code" in the Student Handbook.
Course #1 _________________________________________
Course #2 _________________________________________
Course #3 _________________________________________
[2] My expectations for compliance with the Honor Code required particular explanation in the following courses. (Please list here the conditions you have set. If it is more convenient, you may attach instead a copy of any syllabi that include such guidelines or provide a URL where the information may be obtained via the web).
Course #1 _________________________________________
Course #2 __________________________________________
Course #3 ___________________________________________
URL: _______________________________________________________