OUR VIEW: Students cheated by honor code

As students, the majority of us went through the orientation process held in the Taggart Student Center the summer before we were granted independence from parents, high school teachers and those people we could never escape since the third grade (no worries, we all have our own story). One of the only things that has remained the same since our elementary school classes was the stress about being honest and the fact that cheating is bad.

At the beginning of every semester, we gain nothing short of a tree worth of syllabi with some form of the student honor code enclosed reiterating the importance of academic honesty. Yes, most of us know we shouldn’t cheat. And yes, most of us wouldn’t have the nerve to try, let alone allow our conscience to get away with it.

However, the student honor code is lacking something every student needs whether they realize it or not – the right to defend him or herself when confronted with an accusation from a professor of cheating or plagiarizing. As it stands, there is no recourse for students in this unfortunate position.

As students, most of us have nothing but our credibility. With that said, we should have the right to be approached by our accusers and the right to present our case. In the past, there was an honor committee that addressed these issue. However that was dissolved with the convergence of the student code and honor code into one.

This issue is a serious one. Yes, it may result in an unfair failing grade. Yet even more importantly, it leaves us without a voice and discredits our character.