Academic Honesty The opportunity or the accessibility for students to cheat is greater now than previous years. In the article, “Honor Principle differs from peers,’ ” by Lindsay Ellis and Kira Watkin of Dartmouth University, it is stated that Dartmouth, Princeton University and University of Pennsylvania base their honor code on trust. This leaves for an open interpretation of the honor principle by students, and works off the idea that students are able to distinguish for themselves what is inappropriate and appropriate behavior. Although it is rather generous to have an honor principle that is so vague, it can also be a bad thing to have. Some students may not want to collaborate or share tips about the work because they’re afraid it would be in violation of the principle. I think that certain guidelines should be established for very research heavy assignments, such as labs and papers, in each class, like Biology Professor Smith at Dartmouth does with her students. This was a policy I have followed through my high school and first years in college. Each student collaborates with obtaining the data, but it’s the interpretation of it that varies. There was an incident at Harvard University that was discussed in class about the 125 graduate seniors who were made to take a leave of absence or withdraw for collaborating on a take home test. An investigation is being conducted for these students and it was brought up in class about whether or not it was fair to rescind all students’ diplomas who took this General Education class. A student in class stated that it was not fair because you can’t really prove who exactly cheated and who didn’t. They also stated that because this class was a GE class it doesn’t really affect any jobs so no “real” harm was done. When the example of a doctoral thesis being plagiarized was brought up, it was generally agreed upon that it was ok to remove their doctorate title because their line of work affects others. I think that when your line of work, either directly or indirectly, affects the safety of other people, you really should not be cheating. I think that is why, at least in the engineering profession, the exams to become an Engineer in Training or a Professional Engineer are made to be so difficult and long and that they are only proctored in certain times of the year. With the engineering profession, people’s safety is always a concern, whether it is short term on long term. The question that came up during class discussion was that if we cannot pass a fundamental class for our major, should we be doing our profession? I agree that if we cannot pass a certain class after numerous attempts that we should not be moved on, but not necessarily giving up on our profession. There will be at least one weakness in a fundamental class. From personal experience, it took me three attempts to fully grasp the concept of Physics 211, which is the Mechanics portion and very critical to my field of study [civil engineering]. But finally I was able to become well rounded in the theory part of physics as well as the application of it, something I could only get one at a time. If someone can master that weakness without cheating and abiding by an honor code, then they are eligible to continue on. If you cheat to move ahead then you really are just cheating yourself. In an honor code or an academic honesty policy I think certain items should be explicitly stated such as the type of material and forms of cheating. However, there should also be some type of waiver or side note that if it doesn’t fall under the categories given, if it looks suspicious it will be investigated.