The new Honor Committee was proposed in the Fall of 2019 by the Academic Integrity Committee. It was formed due to a noticed increase in cheating and plagiarism over the past two years, in an attempt to improve accountability among peers.
Dr. Quatro, the head of the business department, presented the idea to the Student Senate on November 5, 2019. In the presentation, Quatro framed the council in terms of peers keeping peers accountable.
Andie Kripsin ‘20, the student appointed to serve on the Academic Integrity Committee, says that the goal of the Honor Council is to, “ allow our community to take ownership of academic integrity by empowering students and distributing power to the student body.”
Ideally, the council would encourage accountability, trust, and, as the name suggests, honor among peers for the four years that they share on this campus.
The exact details of the Honor Council have not been fully decided upon, but essentially it could be a student-only committee, supervised by the Academic Integrity Committee, that is charged with handling issues of academic honor such as plagiarizing and cheating.
Another potential way of organizing the committee would be with a majority of students and a few faculty members.
Either way, an honor code would be implemented that students would be expected to abide by. When students break the honor code, instead of answering to only faculty and staff, they will have to appear before a committee of their peers who will decide the disciplinary action that needs to be taken.
The idea for this committee came from a similar idea implemented by Sewanee. The Honor Code, as it is called there, “maintains the principle that whosoever signs it shall not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate such behavior from others.”
Dr. Quatro’s presentation to the Senate was the first time students had heard about the idea. At first, the Senate was worried where the jurisdiction would fall - would it be Student Development’s responsibility to oversee, or would it fall on Student Senate?
However, in the Student Senate meeting, Student Body President Erik Peeples ‘20 said that in this committee the students would rise to the occasion of deciding the punishments for students who do break the honor code.
This Council would also only be the first step for disciplining these students, not the final say. Once the student met with the Honor Council and decided how they believed they should be punished, and if further action was needed, the student would meet with higher offices of faculty and staff.
Though all of the details are not finalized, the next step is to wait and see what is next for the Covenant College Honor Council in the upcoming school year.