Honor Code Dbq

There is an ongoing debate about whether or not the honor code, a code that obliges students to report academic dishonesty of their fellow peers, is strict enough, with many students claiming they feel that their privacy is being violated, and others worrying that requiring reporting cheating to superiors will cause friction amongst the student body. Others claim that with the abundance of recent statistics of high level cheating and plagiarism, a stricter honor code is a necessity. While it is important to respect the student’s privacy, and maintain an ideal learning environment, the fact remains that the honor code, as it is currently, is underperforming, and that stricter measures need to be taken, for the sake of a fairer learning environment.

The main contention of the test takers seems to be that being closely watched and supervised make them feel uncomfortable and invalidated. Some critics, particularly paranoid of its invasiveness. Though it is important to account for the comfort and attitude of students, prioritizing it over justice is not

In Alyssa Vangelli’s article, she states that “Students opposed the honor code because they did not feel it was their responsibility,” (Source B) This statement immediately provides a fairly unsettling contradiction-after all, the entire purpose of the honor code is to make peer monitoring the responsibility of the students. The students complain that they are not trusted, yet when measures are taken to earn this trust, they balk. Supporting this is Sledge, Sally, and Pringle’s 2013 survey of a small university, in which only 8% of students stated they would report a fellow who student for cheating. While a larger scale survey would need to be done to validate these results, this alarming statistic seems to suggests that the lack of trust towards students matches a lack of