Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!seismo!mcnc!ece-csc!uvacs!dam From: dam@uvacs.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: Re: Cheating on Programming Assignments (Honor System) Message-ID: <1466@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU> Date: Thu, 7-May-87 10:57:53 EDT Article-I.D.: uvacs.1466 Posted: Thu May 7 10:57:53 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 9-May-87 08:13:19 EDT References: <263@rruxa.UUCP> Reply-To: dam@uvacs.UUCP (Dave Montuori) Organization: U.Va. CS dept. Charlottesville, VA Lines: 52 Keywords: cheating, honor systems, crock Summary: Honor Systems must be *enforced* In article <263@rruxa.UUCP> gwl@rruxa.UUCP writes: >In article <278@herman.UUCP> root@herman.UUCP writes: >>>In article <83@ksr.UUCP>, benson@alcatraz.ksr.com (Benson Margulies)writes: >>> \I/ think >>> that you should be spending your time on building a learning >>> environment in which its irrelevant. .... >> >>First of all i have to let out a little school rah-rah: I did my undergrad >>work at the University of Virginia (wah-hoo-wah (:-)) which has a famous (at >>least on the east coast) honor system.... > > [story of a final at Stevens Tech under an honor system] > All >that I heard in the bathroom stalls were the sounds of rustling papers >and the sound of toilets flushing. People were cheating left and right! >Some honor system. Dumb old me. I was honest and I got screwed because >of it as compaired to others who cheated and did better on the exam. Your problem here lay not with the system as a whole, but with your part in it. At U.Va. if this had happened to me, I would knock on their stalls, confront them, get their names and turn them in to the honor committee. The four basic tenets of the Jeffersonian honor system, as originally defined, are: I will not lie. I will not cheat. I will not steal. I *will* report anyone I see doing so. Its first use was at William and Mary, where it's still in effect after 208 years. The penalties there range from reprimands to expulsion, with F's and one-semester suspensions being most common. A second offense may only be punished by expulsion. Furthermore, harassment and threats against person A for turning person B in (whether the threats are by person B or not) is *also* an honor offense and is usually punished by immediate expulsion. Here at U.Va., as at W&M (my undergrad college), there are very few cases of cheating. We caught one in the class I TA'd last fall; the culprits are HISTORY. We do proctor exams, as a courtesy measure if nothing else (you get the most *interesting* questions during a final). The point is that if everyone does their part (see tenet 4), then the honor system works; the cheaters get dumped out, word gets around, and fewer people with propensities to cheat will attend your institution; repeat until 'rampant honesty' becomes the norm. -- From the University of Virginia at Boar's Head, C.S. Department-in-Exile: Dave Montuori (Dr. ZRFQ); DAMONT quandum, DAMONTque futurus. dam@uvacs.cs.virginia.edu or {allegra | cbosgd | ncsu}!uvacs!dam NSA line eater food: terrorist, CIA, drugs, cipher, secret, fnord, FBI, decode.