The Honor Code Council. From left to right the council members are: Front row: Christine Rohde, Julene Bell, Janelle Crandall, Ashley Littrell, Allison Seigel Back row: Ron Stump, Eric Lentell, Clayton McClellan, Peter Blanken

Since its inception in 2001, the Honor Code has been outreaching to students and faculty to reduce the number of academically dishonest practices on campus.

The Honor Code Council is gearing up for final exams week by reminding students of the importance of ethics and integrity. The council will sponsor an informal breakfast, where students can pick up a free exam blue book and ask council members any questions on the Honor Code.

"We also do a lot of work with faculty around finals," said Christine Rohde, Honor Code chair. "It"s important to remind them of the code and our process."

Additionally, the council hopes to establish personal training with new faculty hires this fall. The training would be a supplement to current departmental sessions and would give new employees an in depth explanation of policy and procedures.

In spring 2000, the university brought in Donald L. McCabe, founder and first president of the Center for Academic Integrity and Rutgers University professor, to survey students on the amount of unethical academic practices at CU-Boulder, what they considered to be cheating and their understanding of violation policies.

McCabe re-surveyed the campus in February. The Honor Code Council is in the process of reviewing the responses and hopes to share relevant and helpful information with campus departments this fall. According to Rohde, the results show that CU-Boulder is no different from any other large university, and current statistics on Honor Code violates may not yet be able to reflect the effectiveness of the policy.

"We expect it to be a few more years before we can say that there has been a decrease in academically dishonest behavior," said Rohde. "There has only been one class of students to go through the university system since the creation of the Honor Code."

Since August of 2005, there have been 170 reported incidents of code violations. Overall, there have been 805 reported incidents and 121 have brought forth hearings. Of those cases, 100 students have been found responsible. A hearing occurs when the accused student denies responsibility for the incident, or if it is the student"s second offense. Students are sanctioned when they admit to an accusation, or are found responsible through a hearing. Most reported incidents are cases of plagiarism or cheating.

For more information visit http://www.colorado.edu/honorcode.