Last Thursday, in an e-mail message to the entire student body, Dean of Students Ben Lieber detailed the 37 Honor Code infractions committed in the 2004 calendar year. Nine cases involved plagiarized passages in paper assignments from either the Internet or printed sources, five incidents described students cheating on in-class and take-home exams, a computer code and a final portfolio. The list included 19 incidents of raucous behavior or theft and four cases in which students forged their advisors' signatures for College forms or work-study materials.

According to Lieber, the 37 violations are within the College's statistical norms. From 2003-2000, the College reported 22, 63, 27 and 35 infractions, respectively. Lieber described the trend as "typical and unacceptable." Lieber forwarded the list to the entire student body in order to highlight the types of punishment levied on violators of the Honor Code.

In 2004, most cases of plagiarism and cheating resulted in a grade of 'F' on the assignment, though that standard may change as result of the College Council's recommendation in 2004 to give an 'F' in the course in which a student is caught cheating rather than just an 'F' on the assignment in question.

The Honor Code, established in the fall of 2004, is intended to be the administration and faculty's chief barrier against the recent rise in cheating and plagiarism, which spiked around the year 2000 and has persisted at a similarly high level since. "The Honor Code is the main salve in our efforts," Lieber said of the College's attempts to curb the trend. Lieber noted that the class of 2008 was the first class required to sign the Honor Code during Orientation. "It's too early to tell how effective those signatures will be. The best indicators will be the list of infractions for the calendar year 2005," he said.

Although the newly established "recommendation of failure" seeks to produce a substantial change in the types of punishment levied on Honor Code violators, faculty will ultimately retain discretion with respect to grading in such cases. "It's a recommendation, not a requirement," Lieber said. "We wanted the faculty to keep complete grading discretion. We were looking for a firmer grading recommendation. The College Council discussed the possibility of uniform punishment but concluded that the faculty would not be willing to give up its discretion on grading."

In several of the cases, students were described as having "disciplinary probation" status. "It means that if they're found in violation of the Honor Code again, they will likely be suspended or dismissed," Lieber explained. "It puts a student on notice."

Lieber suggested that the increase in cheating and plagiarism has two main causes: easy access to material via the Internet and the increasing competition to get into college, causing students to cheat in high school.

Statistical evidence may support the second possibility. In a poll conducted by the College Council last year, 41 percent of students at the College reported having cheated at least once in high school. Lieber described the figure as "an extraordinarily high number."

If the behavior is starting at the high school level, the College, Lieber admits, will have a more difficult time allaying the behavior. "We certainly hope that we can change this," he said. "We hope that students who have done wrong in the past are educable."