The General Faculty voted to approve the following revised Honor System Charter on May 21, 2008.
The Honor System provides a framework for academic work at Oberlin College and for the establishment of a Student Honor Committee (SHC). The SHC promotes an honor system where students form part of the Oberlin College community of scholars. As peers, the SHC allows for the student body to be accountable to each other based on the principles of academic integrity. The SHC ensures that trust and academic freedom are maintained for the scholarly pursuits of the Oberlin College community.
The purpose of the system is to maintain a high standard of academic integrity in all curricular work, to respect students’ ability to adhere to this standard, and to encourage further development of this ability through the efforts of faculty, administration, and students. The Honor System embraces the Honor Code and the system administering it.
The Honor Code provides the foundation for the intellectual freedom that is encouraged and shared by all members of the academic community and embodies the belief that true academic freedom and discourse can only exist within a framework of honesty, integrity, and responsibility. With the privilege of pursuing an Oberlin education comes the responsibility of supporting both the expectations and the spirit of the Honor Code. This requires each individual to respect all fellow members of the Oberlin community and to vigorously support the protected nature of intellectual property. Oberlin fosters and promotes a strong commitment to open and thoughtful intellectual discourse within the context of the principles defined by the Honor System. It is expected that the core values inherent to the Honor Code will be adopted, upheld and adhered to by all members of the Oberlin College community. Based on this presumption, professors do not proctor exams, but trust that students adhere to the Honor Code.
Students bear the responsibility of ensuring the maintenance of academic freedom in the community and report possible infractions potentially harming the community. Students are required to utilize principled and sound judgment regarding all interactions within the academic enterprise and to abide by the regulations set forth below.
The Honor Code: Oberlin College students are on their honor to uphold a high degree of academic integrity. All work that students submit is expected to be of their own creation and give proper credit to the ideas and work of others. When students write and sign the Honor Pledge, they are affirming that they have not cheated, plagiarized, fabricated, or falsified information, nor assisted others in these actions.
Honor Pledge: “I have adhered to the Honor Code in this assignment.”
The default assumption covering all academic exercises is that students are required to do their own work only utilizing the help and resources considered appropriate for each academic exercise, including sources of assistance routinely offered by the college to students, such as reference librarians and writing tutors. Notwithstanding, in all cases, the professor in a specific course may further restrict or expand what resources are approved or not approved for use in a particular course or assignment.