This was the first year Uni students had the option of going to an honor council of their peers if they wanted to challenge accusations of cheating.

Gargoyle graphic by Angelina Liang
(Class of 2006)

THIS WAS THE first year Uni presented an honor council as an option for students accused of committing offenses listed in Section 7.10 of the Student Handbook.

This adds the honor council onto a list of several choices students have if they are caught cheating.

According to Assistant Principal Sue Kovacs, students can take a zero on the assignment they were caught cheating on and have their name in Kovacs’ file, or go to Kovacs and have her make the punishment. And, as of this year, they can now go to an honor council composed of their peers.

This year there have been several instances of cheating, all of which were in English classes. All of the students caught cheating decided to take a zero on the assignment.

Kovacs said most students don’t choose an honor council option because students are often harder on their peers than teachers are because they think that one student cheating creates a bad reputation for other students.

Still, she believes there are circumstances in which a student would be wise to consider using the honor council.

“If [students] feel that they’ve been wronged in class, or they feel that they have a good case that they can present to the honor council, then I would go that way,” said Kovacs. “If I think that the teacher has said ‘You’re cheating’ and he or she can’t show me any information or why they think that, then I would contest it.”

According to Kovacs, this year it’s been relatively easy to catch people cheating since all of the instances have been in English classes. Kovacs said that with English it’s easy to see if a student cheated because you can just type a phrase into Google, and if it is plagiarized a source will show up.

Kovacs isn’t worried that the honor council hasn’t been used at all this year.

“[Students who cheat] take the zero, the first zero, and then they say they’ll never cheat again, which means that we’ve gotten what we wanted. We want the kids to understand that you can’t cheat [and] you can’t plagiarize. So hopefully it works.”

The honor council will always be available if students choose to use it.

“I think [the honor council’s] got a lot of potential,” said Kovacs. “I would love to see it held here. Thus far we just haven’t had one.”

How would an honor council hearing work?

No Uni student accused of academic dishonesty used the option of an honor council hearing this year. If a student ever does choose the option, here's how it would work:

1. A random number generator will be used to pick six students, one from each grade, subfreshman through junior, and two seniors.

2. After ensuring that there is no conflict of interest within the jury, a lunchtime hearing will take place.

3. The honor council will hear the accusation by the teacher, the defense by the student, and the testimony of up to five witnesses for both.

4. The honor council will deliberate and decide on the best course of action.

5. This decision will act as a recommendation to the administrators, who will ultimately be responsible for picking a disciplinary action.