THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 9, 1994 TAG: 9412090626
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Old Dominion University board members on Thursday approved an overhaul of the university's honor system to crack down on cheating.
And they went one step further than administrators, sending a message to students that they could be in trouble even if they saw someone cheating and didn't ``fess up.''
The overhaul stirred controversy on campus, moving the authority to investigate and try cases from the student Honor Council to a university administrator.
But at its meeting Thursday, the Board of Visitors debated another point: Should ODU relieve students of the responsibility to report cheaters?
The current honor code lists ``failure to report suspected violations of the honor pledge'' as a disciplinary violation itself. But the new version offered by administrators deleted that phrase.
Vice President Dana D. Burnett said the clause is virtually useless and is never enforced.
Yet some board members wanted it back in. ``I just think that it's good to have a high standard and work to live up to it,'' Henry E. Howell Jr. said.
Edward L. Hamm Jr. agreed: ``In this permissive society, I think it's good for a school to make a statement on this.'' He noted that the penalties for failure to report incidents had never been specified and did not have to be severe.
But other board members disagreed. J. Michael Pitchford said: ``It's just not a real-world measure. You or I will not be subjected to criminal penalties for failure to report something we see. It just doesn't make any sense.''
The board then voted 8-4 to restore the phrase before approving the revisions. Pitchford was the only board member who dissented in the vote on the whole package.
Honor systems aim to instill honesty in students and often give them large roles in overseeing discipline on campus.
Campus honor systems vary widely. They can include freshman seminars, resembling initiation ceremonies; pledges attesting to honesty on every test; and requirements that professors leave the room during exams.
ODU administrators said their system needed to be strengthened to cut down on cheating. To do that, they said, faculty and administrators needed to be more involved. But Honor Council members will still participate on an appeals panel, and the council will be asked to take the lead in educating the campus on the dangers of cheating.
``It's an attempt to make our academic honesty standards more meaningful but at the same time to preserve student involvement,'' President James V. Koch said.
The student Honor Council opposed the move, but none of its members attended the meeting. Student body president Angela East told board members: ``I don't believe we will come up with a plan that students are 100 percent comfortable with. But they feel, for the most part, that their concerns have been addressed.''
Burnett said the changes would take effect by next summer.
Also during the board meeting, athletic director James Jarrett offered a report on ``gender equity'' in the athletics program.
Fifty-two percent of the scholarship money offered to athletes this school year went to men, the study said, and 56 percent of ``operating expenses'' for teams went to men's teams.
``ODU looks very, very good in the equity issue area,'' Jarrett said. by CNB