Honor Code just "words on a page," says student

Honor Code just "words on a page," says student

ATLANTA
November 6, 1998

Last year I was an incoming freshman to Georgia Tech who was incredibly surprised that I was made to sign the Honor Code before being allowed to register for classes. I had assumed that any such policies regarding cheating and/or plagiarism would have been included in the student handbook. To be honest, I am not sure what people expected the Honor Code to accomplish. As the editor of the North Avenue Review put it, "It's now official; cheating is bad." The truth is that the Honor Code is nothing more than this letter. That is, words on a page.

Do you really expect those words to jump off the page and physically stop a student from cheating? No, it is not going to happen. The truth is one really can't require integrity. You can however, help to teach it. The only way the Honor Code is going to have any effect is if it is publicly used. It may be difficult to catch people cheating, but if and when people are caught, it needs to be a big deal for people to truly understand what's going on. In addition it may be a good idea to propose sanctions toward students who are aware of Honor Code violations yet refuse to turn them in, that is, if such sanctions don't already exist.

In short, the only way to institute honesty and integrity is to take action. Words on a page are incapable of performing any action, but the Georgia Tech administrators certainly are.

Ricky Anderson
mfrog@r32h228.res.gatech.edu

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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