Perspectives: Jessica Driscoll

“[I want] to emphasize to the Stevens community that we can’t look into something unless we know about it,” said Jessica Driscoll.

Jessica Driscoll was recently elected Chair of the Honor Board. Her goal is to focus on improving the positive outreach to the student body and perception of the organization by both students and administration. She wants students to acknowledge the work the board does as well as have others understand what being a member of the Honor Board entails.

“I think it was really my experience as Outreach Chair that kinda alerted me to how our events got low attendance and how the rest of the campus saw the Honor Board,” said Driscoll on why she ran for Chair. At Stevens, the Honor Board does not have a positive image. Students typically see the Honor Board as an organization that only catches people for cheating. However, the Honor System accomplishes a lot more, “[The Honor System] protects you from professors singling you out and being able to just make a final call on a grade,” said Driscoll. In fact, more students report Honor System violations than professors. Thus, Driscoll believes that students should be proud of the Honor System and should not take it for granted.

As Chair, Driscoll hopes to improve the board’s positive outreach. “I don’t know why the Honor Board doesn’t do review sessions for exams; let’s help [people] not cheat,” said Driscoll. During her time as Outreach Chair, she established “Beat the Board,” an orientation event where freshmen could play volleyball with the Honor Board. In the future, she is looking into bringing therapy animals to campus during finals, and has plans to compile a drive of useful resources for classes at Stevens.

Driscoll believes that part of the issue is that the student body doesn’t understand what being an Honor Board member entails. Honor Board members investigating a case hold about two to three meetings per week with professors, accused students, and witnesses. In addition, when preparing for a hearing, Honor Board members need to create an evidence packet to present to the jury. “There’s a lot of protocol to follow and it has to be followed to a T because we hold our ourselves accountable internally as well,” said Driscoll. “It’s more towards an administrative job than a student organization.”

Not only do students not understand what being an Honor Board member entails, but neither does the administration. According to Driscoll, administration does not comprehend the required time commitment — especially when it comes to the amount of meetings they need to schedule. As evidence, she refers to the removal of priority registration for members. “I don’t think that [removing priority registration] should’ve happened. We were made aware ahead of time, but there was nothing [that] we really could do; we were not asked for our input in that decision,” said Driscoll.

However, the Honor Board is working to increase faculty engagement and “buy-in” with the system. Earlier this semester, they increased the threshold for faculty adjudication from assignments worth less than 13% of the final grade to any assignment. While the Honor Board had a large amount of cases, the load was not main the reason for the change; instead, it was to increase professor buy-in for the Honor System. “The [professors] who want to be able to pursue an outcome will be able to do so now,” said Driscoll.

Driscoll believes that professors understand the Honor System, but they still need to be educated about its uses. “There’s not supposed to be any loophole class that flies under the radar; every class is supposed to fall under the Honor System,” said Driscoll. She holds that supporting the Honor System allows classes to have an accurate grade distribution. Instead of an assignment being biased due to undeserved perfect or extremely high scores ruining the curve, a professor can accurately curve an assignment if it was difficult. This allows classes to have a normal grade distribution, which benefits students.

“Stevens is a structured school,” said Driscoll. She reflected from personal experience and her time on the Honor Board to draw this conclusion. “From my time on the board, I’ve seen that there are a lot rigid or, like, more firm, structured types of policies in place that might inhibit outcomes favorable to students,” said Driscoll. As examples, she noted that students have difficulties understanding major selection and reading the course catalog.

Ultimately, Driscoll emphasized that the Honor System is student-run, and should not be taken for granted. Students should have pride and actively take part in the Honor System.