Professor Speaking with Student

Information for Faculty

Role of the Honor System Council

Council members have the following roles:

  • We educate the campus community about the Honor System and issues of academic integrity.
  • We work to inspire students to uphold high ethical standards.
  • We serve as a peer hearing board in cases of alleged academic dishonesty.

Violations

The Honor System is the university's official channel for dealing with alleged cases in which a breach of academic integrity has occurred.

Though it might seem easier to just deal with the issue on your own, or that going through the process of reporting a violation only creates an unnecessary hassle, that's really not the case. Instead, the Honor System allows many advantages, including:

  • Central record keeping, which is extremely important in uncovering and addressing cases of repeated breaches of academic integrity
  • Consistent treatment of students caught multiple times, which can go a long way toward addressing the root cause of the student's dishonest
  • Peer accountability, which is a powerful force for students to hold themselves accountable to each other in dealing with these issues

Grade Assignments

The Honor System doesn't affect your ability to assign grades as you see fit, and can only recommend academic sanctions. You retain the final authority over grading in your classes. Though many faculty do follow the recommendations of the Honor System Council in these cases, that's not always the case -- in some cases faculty have chosen to assign different grade penalties than those recommended by the Council.

End-of-Semester Violations

Violations that occur at the end of a semester are particularly problematic, as both Council members and the accused are busy with final exams. Nevertheless, the Council aims to act upon reported violations in a timely manner. In recent practice, violations reported by the last day of class have been heard by the end of the final exam period, while cases reported during the final exam period are deferred to the beginning of the next semester.

Use of Online Plagiarism Detection Tools

Though problems with plagiarism and inadequate attribution of sources is an endemic problem in higher education, the Council does not recommend blanket submission of all submitted papers to various online plagiarism detections tools. This approach is antithetical to the spirit of the Honor System and the character of Stetson University as an institution that grants individual attention to its students. The Council believes that, when used judiciously, such tools can be helpful in cases where suspicion exists about submitted work. If requested, the Council can use these tools as part of its investigative process.

Honor System Council Recommended Syllabus Blurb

More Information

Information not found on this page or on this website may be found in the Honor System Handbook. Additionally, any faculty members of Honor System Advisory Committee will gladly discuss any questions or concerns you might have. The current members of this committee are:

John Rasp - School of Business Administration

Sean Kennard - School of Music

Megan O'Neill - College of Arts and Sciences

Barbara Hawkins - Director of Community Standards

Kellie Pait -duPont-Ball Library

Jessica West - School of Business Administration