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The Honor Board has a new office on the 7th Floor of Howe. Photo by Mark Krupinski.

Changes and clarifications of the Honor Board Policy

Stephen Cornwell, the Honor Board Chairman, sent out an email informing the student body that the Faculty Adjudication process had been changed on January 18, 2019. On issues of academic integrity, the old policy allowed faculty and students to handle all of the investigatory and disciplinary procedures themselves, with a final inspection and approval by the Honor Board, for assignments that were worth less than 13% of the final course grade. The new policy expands this process to allow for an adjudication on any assignment, though the final Honor Board approval remains.

Another aspect of the policy that has not changed is the ability of Honor Board to amend or alter disciplinary measures meted out by the faculty member. Penalties are “often modified to include a learning component, such as an ethics course,” according to a joint response from Cornwell and Jack Kraszewski, the Honor Board Vice Chair. “There were several factors [that] inspired this change: quicker case resolution for both students and faculty and the ability for professors to have more autonomy in their own classrooms. No one outside the Board requested this from us; we are implementing this because we think it will improve the Honor System overall.”

A note that Cornwell and Kraszewski reiterated was that “the change does not allow for independent resolution of incidents — all Faculty Adjudications are to be submitted to the Honor Board for approval and final case resolution.”

In an era of rapidly evolving channels of communication through digital means (Google Drive, GroupMe, Slack, etc…), the Honor Board is attempting to evolve in kind. “I think the evolution of intercommunication and information sharing will continue. The Board is discussing how best to address these situations and improve the effectiveness of the Honor Board and the Honor System overall. As we are constantly saying, feedback is more than welcome, and if any students have comments or ideas for improvement, we are more than glad to hear them.”

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