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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Dishonorable Conduct?

By Allie Grasgreen
Inside Higher Ed
Originally published September 6, 2012

Officials at Harvard University were quick to condemn the behavior of the 125 students suspected of collaborating inappropriately on a take-home exam.

“These allegations, if proven, represent totally unacceptable behavior that betrays the trust upon which intellectual inquiry at Harvard depends,” Harvard President Drew Faust said in a statement.

Harvard officials, who declined to comment for this story, say they plan to revisit their academic integrity policies and possibly create an honor code. It’s not the first time they’ve raised the idea – for at least two years now, administrators have recognized the potential need for a makeover. In 2010, undergraduate dean Jay Harris told The Harvard Crimson that academic dishonesty there was “a real problem.”

Harvard's official handbook says students should “assume that collaboration in the completion of assignments is prohibited unless explicitly permitted by the instructor.” And the university apparently created a voluntary academic integrity pledge students could sign last year, the Globe reported, but scrapped it this year.

The entire story is here.