Honor Council endeavors to protect academic ideals

Many students think plagiarism is the wholesale stealing of someone else's writing. But few realize that an oversight as minor as incorrectly citing a Web page could prompt disciplinary charges. One campus organization is working to change that. After two years of trying to build student awareness about the issues surrounding academic integrity, the University Honor Council is finally becoming a noticeable presence on campus. "This is the year where we're starting to branch out? where we're starting to really become visible," UHC chairperson and College senior Christina Park said. The 13-person council was created by then-Provost Stanley Chodorow in 1995 as part of the revamping of the University's judicial charter. The UHC is funded by and works in conjunction with the Office of Student Conduct, but Park stressed the UHC's independence and its role as the student voice in the judicial process. The council's main goal, however, is to educate the Penn community about the nuances of academic integrity, according to UHC members. "We want to make Penn, in general, an environment where students care about the Code [of Academic Integrity]," said UHC Vice Chairperson Reid Schneider, a Wharton senior. To achieve its educational goals, Park said the UHC is planning an "Academic Integrity Week" this semester. Park added that the UHC plans to send letters to the incoming freshman class next summer explaining issues of academic integrity. "A lot of the freshmen come in and they don't know what cheating is," she explained. "If there is some way of reaching the students early on, then we can instill an ongoing relationship [and] increase academic integrity awareness." In addition to their didactic responsibilities, UHC members serve alongside faculty on academic integrity hearing panels. Although few cases even reach the hearing stage, students usually confess to cheating -- leaving the panel with only the job of deciding on sanctions. Only about half a dozen cases come before the panel each year, Park said, in part because professors often settle academic integrity issues without referring the case to the Office of Student Conduct. "We're trying to encourage faculty to use [the UHC] more so there would be equal consequences across the board," Park said, noting that many professors choose to either fail students or just let them rewrite a plagiarized paper. Before the 1995 charter took effect, students accused of cheating were referred to the Judicial Inquiry Office, which Park said lacked adequate student input. The new system, by contrast, allows students to have a direct role in deciding the punishment of their peers, she added. Council members serve renewable one-year terms, which expire at the end of each calendar year.