Undergraduate Honor System
History
The Georgetown College strategic plan titled “Strategic Initiative Plan Georgetown College 1998-2003: Moving to Higher Ground” directed a study as to whether or not a campus-wide honor system should be initiated. An eighteen-month study that included the study of student survey data, faculty input, student focus groups, and study of the benefits of an honor system at comparable institutions concluded the need to develop a College-wide Honor System. The study indicated a need to develop an honor system that emphasizes faculty involvement, student participation, and administrative management focused upon consistency. As a result, this Honor System document was developed. The intention of the creators of the Georgetown College Honor System was that the Honor System would become an important tradition toward the maintenance of a truly scholarly environment that highlights the ideals of honor, responsibility, consistency, student/faculty involvement, and fairness. The Georgetown College Honor System was initiated during the fall semester 2000.
Meaning
Georgetown College is “an innovative community of scholars developing ethical scholars committed to our heritage of Christian discernment.” In a truly academic community, honor must be expected. Honor is an ideal that is evident in the lives of ethical scholars. Primarily, the function of the Honor System is to educate and instill a common purpose within the campus’ student community. The Honor System is an educational tool to assist the process of teaching morality and ethics. The Honor system helps create an environment that will assist in the development of the whole person by insisting upon honorable traits and behavior. Further, the process assists in the establishment of precedent, consistency, and fairness with regard to questions of academic integrity. An effective honor system requires students and faculty to understand and abide by the system’s expectations.