Editorial - September 2003

Honor system can work in colleges

Published September 3, 2003

Corporate greed and unethical behavior among top business leaders suggest there is an ethics problem, if not a crisis, in our society today.

So we should take notice when surveys show a rise in cheating on exams in our schools. Some surveys show up to 97 percent of high school students admit to cheating in some form. By the time students get to college, those figures drop, according to the experts, but the percentage is still high, close to 50 percent.

There is a time-honored approach to dealing with cheaters — the honor system. Many college administrators probably throw up their hands and laugh at the prospect of enforcing an honor code in this day and age, but the fact is that it can work and does work at Davidson College. During exam week, students schedule their own finals and take them with no professor present, according to an Associated Press story out of Raleigh. There are typically only 12 to 15 cases of cheating a year on the campus, which has 1,700 students.

Davidson has a “non-toleration clause,” which says students must report other students who cheat and that is crucial to the code. Without it, a code falls apart quickly according to college officials. The key to getting a school on-board with this policy is convincing students of its validity and importance.

UNC-Chapel Hill has had an honor code for more than a century, but it is not considered very effective today. The code was recently overhauled after a computer science professor reported 24 students for unauthorized collaboration.

If we want ethical conduct in our top business circles, we should instill those values as early as possible. Ultimately, it is the family that gives root to morale conduct, but what an important showcase it would be to have an honor code on display and working in all of  our colleges.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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