The Sandspur

Issue date: 9/4/06 Section: Life & Times

Media Credit: Alain Blanchard

"On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work." A short sentence with deep implications for Rollins' staff and students. The honor code, which came into place starting this year, is present in every classroom, on every assignment and on every exam.

The nine violations of the honor code are for the most part obvious cheating. As a student, by college most should know that plagiarism, cheating, violation of testing conditions and lying are the basic school no-no's.

However, there are other major parts of the honor code that are new concepts to many of us, and major gaps have been left unfilled by the Honor Code Committee. Unauthorized collaboration, facilitating academic dishonesty and submission of work prepared for another course, even if prepared by yourself, are all considered violations of the honor code, and can result in an HF (honors failure) on your transcripts.

More concerning than the honor code itself is the school's implementation of a policy that lacks school wide support and more importantly, understanding.

For the incoming freshman, that meant attending the honor code seminars and signing the honor code, but never receiving a written copy of the honor code, which begs the moral of signing before reading what you are in fact signing.

For the rest of Rollins, it meant knowing that the honor code was being created, that the honor code had been signed into place by a committee of students and staff, but never knowing what exactly the honor code entailed.

For many, it would be sufficed to say that the honor code meant simply not cheating. Unfortunately, a lack of understanding of the honor code continues today. Many in classes question what exactly unauthorized collaboration entails, and how one can self plagiarize, and why that statement needs to be put on every single piece of paper turned into your professor.

Electronic or written, the pledge needs to be on your homework, an aspect of the code that many find childish and not necessary for college age students. Others claim that it reduces the chances of cheating because it creates guilty feelings for the student.

The mystery of the honor code is one that needs to be addressed by both the committee that created and the administration that is meant to enforce it. In order to find the written honor code, one must Google search for it, where it is found in the Holt section, and no where else. The honor code was put into place in order to prevent cheating.

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