Cheating on the Honor Code

When I was an undergrad at the University of Maryland, just before every exam we were told to print and sign our names on the front of our exam booklets. This was to certify that we were aware of the school's honor code policy and that we intended to comply with it. Now in a nutshell, the honor code states that students will not cheat or copy or do anything else that would be considered cheating. Now while all students were required to sign off on it, not everyone complied with it. What I mean is that most students (the vast majority anyways) have admitted to cheating on exams or assignments at one time or another and with the amount of information available out there via the internet, it's a wonder that so many more have not admitted to it yet.

In the face of all that, I found a recent headline to be rather amusing and quite ironic. It seems that the student group assigned the duty of drafting the honor code for the University of Texas actually plagerized the text of their honor code from the honor code drafted by Brigham Young University. Now quoting or attributing words to someone isn't a violation of the honor code in any school so long as a proper citation is made making a reader aware of the fact that the work is not original and is based on another person's work. In this case, the students at the University of Texas used Brigham Young's honor code word-for-word and didn't cite the source even once. Now being a grad student I can attest to the fact that it is harped on quite regularly about how we must be sure to cite our sources. The reason for this is that most schools and colleges wish to promote independent thought rather than the ability to copy and quote verbatim.

Now I've head arguements by some that say that even if a passage is copied or quoted, if it is in the proper context or refers to something in an appropriate manner to get a point across then isn't that showing independent thought and understanding of the subject? To that I would argue that it doesn't. If you ask my why I like "Star Wars" and I post a blog that someone else has written on the subject then are you getting my opinion or their's? Even if I'm in complete agreement with what the person is stating, that doesn't matter, it's not my independent thought and that's what is more important. I just find it so ironic that a student body charged with preventing this sort of action goes forth and does the very same thing. The arguement that they give is that they weren't aware that this code was copied and that it had been contributed to their forum at and earlier date and no one had bothered to check.

I don't buy that for a minute. There are so many web resources out there to check on the legality and originality of works that there really isn't an excuse anymore to claim that one 'didn't know' that the work was plagerized. I mean if students intending to cheat are getting caught due to the resources out there then why is it that students who are selected to the honor committee for supposedly having better scruples are doing the very same thing they are supposed to avoid doing. I think the fact that this incident has come out now means that the University should take the action of revamping the committee and changing the code. It's important enough to be original on something like this simply because it's a reflection of the school's integrity. Sure they may agree 100% with Brigham Young's honor code but then why be called University of Texas? Why not Brigham Young at Texas?