College Honor Codes

I studied very hard in high school and I never cheated on any of my work. I remember studying for many hours on one test, and getting it back with a perfect score. I was the only one in the class to get it perfect. The day the teacher handed back our tests, I was approached after class by a girl who had been out sick the day of the test. She asked me if she could study off my test because she had to take it the next day. I wanted to say no, but I didn't because I wasn't sure how to say it. I knew that if she was caught, I would be in just as much trouble as she was. But even more upsetting than that was the knowledge that she would unfairly benefit from all my hours of studying. I felt so bad about it afterwards that I promised myself never to help anyone cheat again.

My college test-taking experience has been very different from my high school one. The college I attend has a very generous honor code, and we are able to schedule finals whenever we want during the testing period and can take the finals in any class room in the building we choose. It is very convenient because we can make our own schedules and are allowed to take the tests in whichever room we find to be most conducive to test-taking. It also helps create a friendlier relationship between the faculty and administration and the student body. There is often distrust between students and authority, and this policy helps alleviate some of that distrust.

However, I see some huge problems with the honor code. The biggest problem is the fact that some people do cheat. My first semester in college I was studying with a group of friends who were in the same class as me. Two of my friends had another class in common as well. They decided that the first day they would each take one of the exams. They would then reconvene and tell each other what was on the exam they had taken, so that both of them were assured to do well on at least one of the exams. My biggest concern in situations like this is not that students who do not work as hard do well anyway. The main problem is that many tests are graded on a curve. So the students who are cheating are also lowering the grades of students who do not cheat. This creates an incentive to cheat, which logically suggests more students will choose to cheat. The students who are left sticking to their moral convictions are, in effect, punished for not cheating.

Perhaps the honor code is meant to teach students about life. Because in real life, cheaters often do get away with it, and everyone else is at a disadvantage. However, in many ways college is not real life. The administration has a duty to ensure the academic integrity of their institution. I am not sure what can be done to make sure cheating is not rewarded or silently encouraged, but it seems to me that the honor code needs to be reevaluated. A good first step would be to open a dialogue between the administration and the students regarding the problem.