Honor code task-force to be considered
By Antoinette Vega
Staff Reporter

Student Government Association representatives are scheduled to vote today on a proposal that advocates say could be the first step toward implementing an honor code that will uphold academic honesty and integrity.

Members of the House of Student Representatives will vote on a resolution supporting a student-led task force to be formed by SGA president-elect Brad Thompson that will be charged with developing ways to increase academic honesty and write an honor code. It also calls for an honor agreement for incoming freshmen next fall in which students “pledge to the continuous pursuit of personal and academic integrity through honesty, respect, trust responsibility and courage.”

The resolution does not set a deadline for the committee to complete its work.

The Academic Affairs Committee drafted the resolution after 90 percent of 155 students surveyed said they favor creating an undergraduate honor code. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said that academic dishonesty affects their degree.

The resolution includes survey results and copies of the master of business administration program’s honor code and honor codes at Southern Methodist University and the University of Virginia. It also calls for the task-force to be diverse.

The committee had originally planned to draft a resolution asking for the creation of a task-force to write an honor code, but ground work needs to be done first to improve student’s ethics, said Katie Gordon, chairwoman of the Academic Affairs Committee
“The resolution before only focused on an honor code, which was not a good place to start,” said Gordon, a senior electrical engineering major. “Before an honor code gets started, integrity needs to increase on campus. This is what the committee plans to achieve.”

Thompson, a junior radio-TV-film major, said he will choose the members of the task-force, which will operate independent of SGA. Under SGA’s constitution, administrative cabinet members are allowed to form executive advisory committees not associated with the House or Programming Council.

“The task force will be established through a nomination process and will include students, faculty and staff,” said Thompson, who has not decided how the process will be implemented. “The task force must be a diverse group so that more students are represented.”

Thompson said the task force will do more than establish ideas, it will also provide tangible ways of promoting ethics on campus by creating forums and whatever else it deems necessary.

“Students want to create an ethical community at TCU,” Thompson said. “Along with working on an honor code, we want to promote ethics for students to follow outside of the classroom.”

Jose Luis Hernandez, a member of the Academic Affairs Committee, said the honor agreement is a good start toward getting freshmen acquainted with a possible honor code.

“Establishing this with the freshmen sets a standard that ethics are important to TCU,” said Hernandez, a freshman music major. “Academic integrity is expected and should be in a written statement.”

If the task-forces drafts an honor agreement or honor code, it must be approved by the SGA, Faculty Senate, the provost and chancellor before it is enacted.

Chancellor Michael Ferrari said he supports the idea of an honor code if it carries a strong support from the faculty and students.

“I have heard many students comment on the possibility of an honor code over the past five years,” Ferrari said. “The time might be right for SGA to give serious consideration to the proposal.”

Antoinette Vega