Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!mimsy!brillig!beth
From: beth@brillig (Beth Katz)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Cheating on Programming Assignments (Honor System)
Message-ID: <6601@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-May-87 14:01:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: mimsy.6601
Posted: Fri May  8 14:01:32 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 9-May-87 21:20:50 EDT
References: <263@rruxa.UUCP> <1466@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU> <3546@gitpyr.gatech.EDU>
Sender: news@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: beth@brillig.UUCP (Beth Katz)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science,
Lines: 46
Keywords: cheating, honor systems, crock

In article <3546@gitpyr.gatech.EDU> kludge@gitpyr.UUCP (Scott Dorsey) writes:
>In article <1466@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU> dam@uvacs.UUCP (Dave Montuori) writes:
>>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.
>
>   It works VERY, VERY well at William and Mary.  I can't say anything
>about any other schools, but in two years there I didn't really see a
>single case of cheating, and I would have reported it, had I seen it.
>I didn't even see students studying old tests; they felt that it was
>more valuble to know the material than the format. 

Okay, this makes W&M students sound saintly.  They are far from it.
I spent four years there.  I testified against someone after showing
rather convincingly that they had grabbed someone's program out of
the trash and copied it.  They were given an F in the course.  I know
of athletes being expelled for second offenses.  Yes, they were
star players.  Tough.  They blew it.  Proceedings are confidential,
but you hear rumors about these things.

In general, William and Mary students don't cheat.  If I had seen
someone cheating, I would have asked them to turn themselves in.
(They have 24 hours to do so.)  The honor system works because
people believe that it works.  The system is administered by students,
and they are generally pretty good about it.  Thomas Jefferson took
the idea to Virginia.  I gather it works pretty well there, too. 
And it seems to work at Cal Tech.  I'm sure it works at other places
as well.

In general, most students don't cheat.  At W&M (and UVa and Cal Tech)
they know that there is a very small chance that they will get away
with it.  And if they manage to get away with it once, they know that
somewhere down the line, they'll find that they've cheated themselves. 
Maybe they don't feel the same way at other schools.  I don't know. 
Maryland will be reinforcing its honor code next year.  It looks like
they are aiming for something closer to W&M's.  I don't know that the
students will believe it.  And if the students don't believe that the
honor code works, it falls apart.
					Beth Katz
					W&M Class of '81
					Univ. of Maryland
					beth@brillig.umd.edu