Integrity is a moral code that demands the highest ethical behavior of a person. Today's society has increased pressures for university students to take the easy route in life. Theoretically, members of our own university who choose to disregard a rule or uphold standards of psychopathic plagiarizers will suffer in the long run. An integrity code can help direct us as students to make the proper choices. Enforced, academic regulations guard students from those who are deceptive or cheat. Also in theory, American University places a high value on academic integrity.
An honor code demands that students approach their studies with an elevated level of honesty in all scholastic involvement. While our Academic Integrity Code establishes these standards, it does not always guarantee that neither students nor faculty members will abide by them. For instance, dishonest students could act in a deceptive manner and can remain undiscovered. An academic environment, based on academic integrity, also does not prevent dishonest students from cheating, unless they're caught. In addition, our academic integrity guidelines do not require honest students to turn in their dishonest peers for such violations.
Honest students are left between a rock and a hard place when it comes to such academic code violations. When is it ever socially acceptable to turn in a dishonest boyfriend, girlfriend, friend or classmate? Never. One of my friends proclaimed that "it's not cheating, unless you get caught." That friend is right. While I value our university's honors council, our academic integrity standards should be the hallmark of our institution. The integrity code is a priority on paper. Deterrence does not exist for students who elect to dishonor the sanctity of its principles.
Before my tenure as a university student, I was an officer in my high school's student council. During the Clinton era, I accepted the verisimilitude between life and art, as that council was obligated to host an impeachment trial of two of my fellow officers. It seemed like a hard-ass thing to do, but my fellow council members found the impeachment process a necessary evil.
Throughout the two trials, I had learned the difficulty and value of enforcing academic integrity laws. I experienced the process as a significant challenge to my person and considered such a moral obligation. Although student council is no longer my cup of tea, I found the process humbling. I still find myself challenged in the university environment in which some of my peers and even my friends consider academic integrity a joke.
I'm not advocating that we force our integrity code to mirror the "no tolerance" policy of the University of Virginia, but our current integrity code evokes images of a wrist-slap. It calls forth for no deterrence of dishonest students, who merely sign a paper acknowledging that our conduct code exists. The days of Hawthorne's branding regime are over, and with such times our integrity code must be called into question. Dishonesty does not vanish with our code since only in a utopian world does the written contract between student and university policy curtail such dishonest behavior. I'm a realist and know that such humility does not exist among dishonest students. I simply foresee a huge issue when the academic integrity code is as a valuable as the university URL it is posted on.
AU could benefit from an honor code that is as valuable in theory as it is in practice. Honesty is as important to an academic integrity code as the dishonesty the code seeks to correct. As a senior, I've stated my two cents and feel that the degree one obtains is as only valuable as the work that was utilized by all such recipients to obtain it, and that includes the work of one's dishonest peers.
Stephanie Furman is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
