New honor code made for USU
The new Utah State University honor system is here to stay.
Despite the fact that there was already an established system in place at USU, it was through to be “ineffective,” ASUSU Academics Vice President Ericka Ensign said.
“It would be naïve to assume that USU is someway insulated from the pervasive cheating that is occurring around the nation’s campuses,” former Academics Vice President Andy Haws of Associated Students of Utah State University said last year.
The new code, which was originally the vision of Haws, began its lengthy revision process last year.
“[The old system] just wasn’t effective,” Ensign said. “Students would get lost in the beurocracy and the red tape. This new system is revolutionary.”
Honor codes usually include an honor pledge and student involvement in the disciplinary process. The new honor system implemented on the USU campus in the spring of 2002, allows students to have a voice in disciplinary action. Its pledge reads:
“As a student of Utah State University, I pledge to conduct myself with academic integrity, civility and honor.”
According to the honor system brochure, which was published for academic integrity awareness, a Student Honor Board will be formed and comprised of four students and two faculty members. It will convene “to hear cases of academic dishonesty and determine appropriate penalties.”
In the brochure, clear definitions are given for cheating, falsification and plagiarism. Explanations are given of the Student Honor Board and the new disciplinary process that will be taken if a case of academic dishonesty occurs.
Assistant Attorney General Robert Barclay, who worked extensively on the “hammering out of the verbiage,” of the new code, said, “The general revision policy was not to write a new policy, but to take the existing code and make changes to it that were more clear in respect to academic honesty.”
Rewriting and revolutionizing the existing code required an acceptance process, which went through ASUSU, the vice president for Student Services, President Kermit L. Hall, Provost Stan L. Albrecht, and the final approval of the Board of Trustees on April 12, 2002, Barclay said.
“It took us from where we were, to where we should be in the future,” he said.
-mdinger@cc.usu.edu