The following appeared as an editorial in the student newspaper of Groveton College.” To combat the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college students, colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton’s, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors and to notify a faculty member if they suspect that others have cheated. Groveton’s honor code replaced an old-fashioned system in which teachers closely monitored students. Under that system, teachers reported an average of thirty cases of cheating per year. The honor code has proven far more successful: in the first year it was in place, students reported twenty-one cases of cheating; five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in a recent survey conducted by the Groveton honor council, a majority of students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without.”

The following appeared as an editorial in the student newspaper of Groveton College.

“To combat the recently reported dramatic rise in cheating among college students, colleges and universities should adopt honor codes similar to Groveton’s, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academic endeavors and to notify a faculty member if they suspect that others have cheated. Groveton’s honor code replaced an old-fashioned system in which teachers closely monitored students. Under that system, teachers reported an average of thirty cases of cheating per year. The honor code has proven far more successful: in the first year it was in place, students reported twenty-one cases of cheating; five years later, this figure had dropped to fourteen. Moreover, in a recent survey conducted by the Groveton honor council, a majority of students said that they would be less likely to cheat with an honor code in place than without.”

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

Honor codes are systems of rules that govern student behavior in a college or university. Most honor codes prohibit students from taking exams or completing assignments without the permission of a faculty member, but just as often, honor codes prohibit students from using cell phones during class or smoking on school property. The effectiveness or otherwise of an honor code depends on its effectiveness in controlling student behavior. The effectiveness of Groveton College’s honor code in fighting cheating depends on the extent to which the honor code actually discourages cheating. Some types of cheating, such as taking a test for someone else or copying answers from a book or colleague, are more easily caught than others. But when a student simply completes an assignment without having completed the assigned reading, there is no way to know whether the cheating was intentional or the result of absent-mindedness. Therefore, if Groveton College’s honor code relies on students to report each other’s cheating, the honor code fails. Even so, every college should develop and publicize an honor code to ensure that students understand what is expected of them and to discourage students from engaging in behaviors that endanger the health and safety of those around them. But the effectiveness of an honor code in minimizing cheating depends on the extent to which the honor code is enforced by faculty members. If a faculty member has difficulty enforcing an honor code, the honor code has little effect.

One of the primary reasons that the honor code proved so successful at Groveton College is the number of students involved in the honor council. In 2001, when Groveton adopted an honor code, the honor council comprised fourteen students. This small number made it easy for honor council members to monitor each other’s behavior. When the honor code was implemented, the honor council sponsored a month-long program in which students discussed what an honor code should prohibit or permit. Then, the honor council conducted a survey of the student body. The honor council asked students whether they favored the honor code to the previous system of direct teacher oversight. When the honor code was in place, 99.7% of students responded that they favored the honor code. This high level of student support suggests that many students were eager to follow the honor code, which eliminates the possibility of cheating motivated by a desire to avoid punishment. However, if the honor code had been enforced by honor council members, then students would have known that the honor code prohibited cheating. If a faculty member had discovered a student violating an honor code, the faculty member could have reported the student to the honor council, which could have imposed sanctions ranging from verbal reprimand to expulsion from the honor code. The small size of the honor council would have made it difficult for the honor council to punish a single student for cheating. Even if an honor council member failed to discover a student’s cheating, the honor code would have provided ample incentive to report any cheating that came to light. As a consequence, the honor code would have prevented cheating in the situations that are most susceptible to cheating, such as taking a test for someone else or copying answers from another student’s book or notes. But these forms of cheating are the easiest to detect, so the honor code would have had no effect on less detectable cheating such as copying a written assignment or writing an essay for someone else.

The lack of an enforcement mechanism makes it more difficult to determine whether the honor code discourages cheating. But it is possible that the lack of enforcement has encouraged cheating. If an honor code had required that a student discover another student’s cheating and then report the violation to the honor council, then the chances of cheating would have been significantly decreased. However, the honor code would have made it difficult for honor council members to discover cheating. If the honor code prohibited students from notifying the faculty member, the honor council would have no way of knowing that the cheating had occurred. As a result, the honor code would have failed to discourage cheating in the situations where most students are tempted to cheat. So, it is difficult to determine whether the lack of a reporting mechanism encourages cheating or discourages cheating.

Opinion polls are an unreliable way to measure the effectiveness of an honor code. Students at Groveton College may have responded differently to the honor code survey because honor codes are widely viewed as unfair. When an honor code forces students to choose between following the honor code and participating in class, some students may conclude that they must cheat to succeed. If an honor code prohibits students from participating in class, then some students may be reluctant to follow the honor code. If students believe that an honor code imposes unfair requirements, they may refuse to follow the honor code. When students refuse to follow the honor code, the honor code loses its effectiveness. For these reasons, opinion polls are unreliable indicators of the effectiveness of an honor code in curbing cheating. The results of polls may also be influenced by the students’ political beliefs. Students who are Democrats or Republicans may be more likely to favor an honor code than students who are not. Consequently, the results of polls could skew in favor of an honor code. But because students may respond differently to an honor code, polls are a poor way to measure the effectiveness of an honor code.

The effectiveness of an honor code in curbing cheating depends on the effectiveness of the honor codes at other schools. For this reason, Groveton College should publish the honor code at other colleges and universities. If other colleges use an honor code, then students may have more experience with the code and might be more