A code we can honor?

If the person next to you cheated on an exam, would you turn him in? Yes you would — or at least that's what you had to say, in a signed statement, in order to enroll as a freshman. As Professor Fleming pointed out last night on Cannon Green, the truth is much more doubtful. Even on in-class exams, where the Honor Code directly applies, many students have reported in anonymous surveys that they would not turn in a classmate.

There is a disconnect between the proud affirmations of the Honor Code we are all required to make and the more subtle, more ambivalent feelings most of us actually have about academic integrity. If someone misses a lecture where the exact rules of calculator use for an upcoming exam are spelled out, is it a mortal sin? Does literally forgetting to insert quote marks in a single sentence of a paper at 3 a.m. really amount to dishonesty? What about struggling with a problem set, then copying an answer after you couldn't find it yourself?

A group of people that is unanimously in favor of academic integrity can still disagree about these questions. Last night's gathering, with its insightful comments all around, should prompt us to think about what we mean when we talk about academic honesty. Assuming most of us actually do favor scholarly integrity of some kind, and assuming Professor Fleming's statistics are right, it appears most of us define academic honesty differently than the Honor Code does.

The student body needs to find its way back to an understanding of academic honesty that we can all buy into wholeheartedly. Maybe, on reflection, the existing Honor Code gets it right. But the writers of this editorial think it doesn't — we think most students tacitly view parts of the code as overly draconian. If we're right that a silent majority favors integrity but has doubts about the code, it's time for a candid conversation. A good place to start would be asking whether it really makes sense to force every freshman to affirm a code many of us inwardly question. Daily Princetonian editorials are written by the Editorial & Opinion Editors, Managing Editors and Editor-In-Chief.