Physics 105 operates under the University of Virginia Honor Code and respects the Community of Trust engendered by that code. All students of Physics 105 are expected to live according to their promise not to lie, cheat, or steal and, in exchange, I will attempt to operate the class in a manner befitting the Community of Trust. Details of the honor issues relating to this course can be found among the course rules.
Unfortunately, a few cases in which University of Virginia students failed to live up to the Honor Code have forced me to limit the scope of that Community of Trust within my class. In each case, specific acts in which UVa students lied, cheated, or stole have caused me to eliminate privileges normally accorded them as part of the Community of Trust.
At present, those lost privileges include:
Explanation: Several students who took their exams in the classrooms copied answers from their neighbors or friends. They subsequently submitted those exams as pledged work and thus violated the Honor Code. To discourage future misbehavior of this sort, I make the exam packets as visually different as possible and introduce proctors into the classrooms to help students stay focused on their own work alone.
Explanation: Several students who took their exam booklets out of the classrooms prior to this change then proceeded to obtain aid from other students. They subsequently submitted their exam booklets as pledged work, thereby violating the UVa Honor Code. In recognition of this repeated misbehavior and of the inability of some small segment of the student body to avoid such problems, I have been forced to limit exam-taking to the classrooms themselves.
Explanation: Several students who took their final exams late, after the rest of the class had completed the exam and, in some cases, after solutions had been posted, submitted as their own pledged work answers that had been obtained from other students, friends, or the posted solutions. These actions constituted a violation of the UVa Honor Code. To ensure fairness within the class and to avoid such misbehavior in the future, the written final exam is given only once—during the officially designated final exam period. Late final exams are conducted as one-hour oral interviews.
Explanation: A number of students who completed exams or term papers were later found to have submitted, as their own pledged work, material that was actually done by someone else. Because such unethical submissions violate the Honor Code, they are inconsistent with the Community of Trust and make it more difficult to take UVa students at their word. To discourage such misbehavior, I now make a thorough check of all pledged work, both during the semester itself and on a continuing basis thereafter.
Explanation: Uncertain about what constitutes a good term paper, some students were asking to borrow the term papers of students from previous semesters.While such loaning of papers is consistent with the spirit of the honor code, a number of borrowers misused the loaned papers and resubmitted them, in whole or part, as original work. Such resubmission constitutes plagiarism. To lessen the temptation and avoid this misbehavior, it is no longer permissable for an enrolled student to read the term paper of any other student.
Explanation: Many Greek Houses at the University of Virginia keep private files of old coursework. These "Poodah Files" often contain old papers and other coursework in electronic form, stripped of authorship information. Student materials flow into and out of these files on a regular basis. Since anonymized papers cannot be cited properly, they cannot be used in an honorable manner and therefore have no place in a community of trust. Moreover, contributing pledged assignments to these files gives aid to future students and is therefore an honor violation. To avoid such honor problems, term papers may not be conveyed to future students through any private means. Unless students makes their term papers available to everyone, with full authorship information provided, those students must keep their term papers to themselves.
Explanation: The Honor Committee's policy is to wait until the last possible moment before notifying a student of an honor investigation. That policy stems from a desire not to foreclose the possibility of a conscientious retraction until the moment a student is interviewed and from a hope that keeping the interview secret until it begins will prevent investigated students from fabricating testimony. Unfortunately, the main effect of delayed notification (often lasting for months) is to allow the investigated student to learn of the investigation via leaks and subsequently tender a coerced conscientious retraction of problematic validity. To eliminate the possibility of these problematic consciencious retractions, I notify investigated students myself immediately after initiating the investigations.
Proactive steps I am taking to strengthen honor in this class:
Explanation: Virtually every honor violation that has occurred in my class has involved a student trying to obtain a credential without putting in the requisite effort. Most often, the student wanted a high grade for lackluster, careless, or nonexistant work. Although I recognize the importance of grades as both short-term work incentives and approximate measures of performance, grades are not the central purpose of the class. The class and its assignments are about education and all that really counts is the understanding and experience that each student retains once the semester is over. If a student has no hope of learning anything valuable while completing an assignment, that student may feel justified in taking an unethical shortcut around it. While I cannot condone or approve of such shortcuts, regardless of a student's motivations, I can help to alleviate the pressure to take them. By stating my own educational goals for each assignment, I hope to make it clear to the students that the assignments are more than just grade-production mechanisms.
Explanation: Nothing discourages honest students more than knowing that others around them are getting away with cheating. While an honest student can dismiss a case or two of undetected or unpunished cheating, as the extent of unchallenged cheating increases, so does the anguish among the honest. To support those honest students and to relieve them of this undeserved angst, I submit all apparent honor violations to the UVa Honor Committee for investigation and participate fully in the subsequent proceedings. My initiatiations are without prejudice or expectation, except that the Honor Committee will treat these cases with the full due process they deserve. I also fully support students who themselves initiate cases against fellow students. The importance of ethical behavior is an essential component of a UVa education and one that deserves our full attention.