Freshmen to learn Honor Code from the very beginning

all incoming freshmen will be hended a copy of Penn's Honor Code at orientation. When freshmen arrive for their first day at Penn, they typically receive extensive information on courses and activities, local restaurants and campus stores. But this fall, another set of instructions will be handed to new students -- a booklet on the University Code of Academic Integrity. These booklets aim to be an informative but informal account of the Code, which details rules on topics including cheating, plagiarism, fabrication and multiple submission. The book will contain definitions of these violations and specifics on discipline information. College junior Rikki Tanenbaum, chairwoman of the University Honor Council, said the booklet is an effort to make students more aware that a legitimate code exists at the University. "We think that academic integrity doesn't get enough attention," Tanenbaum said. According to a survey conducted by the UHC last year, 63 percent of the 600 students polled admitted to cheating while at Penn. The 63 percent statistic constitutes various types of cheating, ranging from copying homework assignments to lying to a professor about a school-related issue, such as absences. While the Code is found in The PennBook, which outlines policies affecting Penn students, and examination blue books, members of the Honor Council feel that students do not know exactly what the code is, nor what constitutes an academic integrity violation. According to Tanenbaum, the distribution of a booklet to incoming students has been on the agenda of the UHC for awhile, but has been developed significantly over the past year. The UHC has been developing the booklet since early November. College junior Rebecca Rethore and College freshman Melinda Gordon were the main coordinators of the project. The booklet has received support from Deputy Provost Peter Conn, who chairs the Academic Integrity Task Force -- a group of students, faculty and administrators charged with looking at scholastic integrity at Penn. Conn said there is reason to believe that academic integrity violations are a problem at the University. "Though [violations] do not occur at a higher or lower rate than other institutions," Conn said, "for Penn that is not good enough -- we should be doing better." While most members of the UHC do not believe that cheating is a rampant problem at the University, faculty members have mixed reactions to this issue. History Professor Thomas Sugrue, for instance, said he believes that cheating is very much prevalent in his department. "[Over the past eight years] I have witnessed directly and indirectly too many instances of cheating," Sugrue said. He added that most cases he has seen and heard of have dealt with plagiarism and multiple submissions. Systems Engineering Professor Tony Smith, however, said he did not see cheating to be such a problem. "I have had very few experiences [with cheating]," Smith said, "and have heard little discussions of it [within my department]." Physics Professor and member of the Academic Integrity Task Force Larry Gladney endorsed the UHC's idea and added that he personally did not see signs of cheating in his department. Office of Student Conduct Director Michele Goldfarb, a member of the Academic Integrity Task Force, said she was very impressed with the creation of the booklet. "[It] is great because it is conversational -- not scolding or [academic] -- it is very approachable," Goldfarb said. The UHC will be conducing faculty and teaching assistant surveys on academic integrity later on in the semester. The council is also discussing the possibility of adding an academic integrity component to New Student Orientation.