Almanac, May 1964, Vol. 10, No. 9

Proposal for Two-Year Experiment in Honor System is Presented An experimental Honor System, to remain in effect for two years, will be instituted in the undergraduate schools of the University in September, 1964, if it wins the final ap- Administration Statement proval of the various school faculties this month. Texts of the proposal were circulated to members of the On University Professorships the Committee of Deans, of faculty by Undergraduate The statement on the and criteria for which Dean Willis Winn of the Wharton School is chair- following purposes Professorships has been adopted by the Univer- man, on April 21. The proposal itself was drawn up, after University sity administration, according to Provost David R. Goddard: extensive discussion, by the Undergraduate Affairs Com- mittee of the University Council. "A limited group of the distinguished members of the shall be the as "The reliable determination of is to faculty designated by Trustees University only feasibility try Professors. A Professor shall be an eminent an Honor System experimentally for a reasonable period University on a basis," the committee said in its scholar who has demonstrated a breadth of intellectual voluntary submitting vision which several of the arts, sci- proposal. "Our aim is to substitute experience for spec- encompasses aspects ences or professional fields. His published works and pro- ulation in determining the feasibility of establishing a fessional activities must have attained wide recognition permanent Honor System at Pennsylvania. The committee from well-known scholarly sources. suggests that the University, by taking an empirical ap- proach, will have ample opportunity for evaluation without "Candidates for a University Professorship may be nom- commitment beyond the experimental period. inated by any member of a faculty and should be submitted in to the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and "We recommend that the writing Experimental Undergraduate Sciences before October 15 of each The Dean and Honor contained herein be instituted in year. System September, those Professors the title shall 1964, and be retained until 1966. We also recom- University currently holding May. consider these candidates and review other members of the mend that a small committee of the Uni- student-faculty faculties who in their merit Council be with the effectiveness may opinion consideration, versity charged studying care to insure that no is of the this and with on taking particular department system throughout period advising omitted from Their which arise in the administration of the scrutiny. recommendations will be problems system. transmitted to the Provost's Staff In the last semester of its the committee should Conference, which shall operation consider the recommendations and nominate to the Presi- also make a thorough report on the system with recom- dent and Trustees those individuals it finds qualified for mendations as to its retention, modification, or rejection. appointment as University Professors. "The Committee realizes that there will be difficulties in "A Professor will hold an Honor but it is convinced that there University usually appointment instituting System, in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and be are values to be attained by its success. With the under- may so budgeted. It is anticipated that a Professor standing that the committee is proposing a University temporary sys- may have an office in the Graduate Center, and that his tem, we recommend that the undergraduate schools of the quarters will include such facilities and special assistance University for the two-year period beginning in September, as may be indicated by his distinguished position in the 1964, adopt the following Experimental Undergraduate Honor System: University. "The privileges and obligations of University Professors I. Adoption are to serve the University community and its educational "In any individual class and in any course in which programs broadly. They are to be without formal specific multiple sections combine for testing purposes, the instruc- obligations; each in his individual judgment shall deter- tor (or the course head) who supervises all examinations, mine the most effective expression of his talents in instruc- (Continued on page two) tion, research, and service." 2 THE ALMANAC HONOR SYSTEM The accused has a right to face his accuser. (Continued one) from page "If a student is found of a violation, the Honor quizzes, and other bases for grades has the authority, but guilty is not bound, to install the Honor if, Board may issue a warning to the student or recommend Experimental System to the committee of student's school prior to the time the first quiz, examination or written appropriate the such is at least 75 cent of the students in disciplinary action as an F in the examination, an F in the assignment given, per course, or the class (or a larger percentage if he so stipulates) ex- suspension expulsion." press approval of this Honor System through secret ballot. The committee, in a lengthy explanatory passage, said II. it was "well aware that it presents to the faculty and stu- Scope dent an that will be "The scope of the Honor shall body experimental system recognized Experimental System by all as a compromise. Some may call it no honor system include quizzes, examinations, written problems, papers at all, a and term exercises and recitations, to but permissive system of non-proctoring; others papers, daily subject that it demeans the student him to write modifications authorized by the instructor. may say by asking out his 'honor' each time he submits a paper." But it added Ill. Honor Code its conviction that "an experimental period is necessary in "Every student has the personal responsibility to up- any attempt to determine the feasibility of an undergrad- hold honorable standards of conduct in academic work and uate honor system in an institution with six undergraduate an equally important responsibility to see that others up- units, each attracting a variety of students whose back- hold these standards. Any work represented by the stu- grounds, educational goals and professional aims may dent as his own will be regarded as conforming with these differ greatly." The system, it concluded, "frankly does standards of conduct. not intend to impose an ironclad unbeatable system of "For at least the duration of the Experimental Honor student proctoring to replace that responsibility now in- System, the student will write at the conclusion of any cumbent on the faculties." paper that is to be graded this affirmation followed by his signature: "'I have upheld the Honor Code.' Dr. C. T. Oliver to Become IV. Responsibility in Reporting Violations "Under the Honor Code a person who observes what Ambassador to Colombia appears to be a violation of the Code has a responsibility to Dr. Covey T. Oliver, Professor of Law, was nominated act. This action may be carried out in one or more of the in April by President Johnson to be United States Ambas- following manners: sador to Colombia. The selection was approved April 28 "1. He may give a verbal warning to the suspected by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. violator that his conduct has been observed and appears A member of the Law School faculty since 1956, and a questionable. former State Department official, Dr. Oliver will succeed "2. If an obvious violation is observed, the witnessing Fulton Freeman, who has been named Ambassador to student may either: Mexico. a) ask the violator to report himself to the Honor Board, or The new Ambassador was graduated from the Univer- b) report the violation directly to a member of the sity of Texas in 1933, took his law degree there in 1936, Honor Board, or and went on to advanced degrees in the same field at Col- c) report the violation to the dean of his school. umbia University in 1953 and 1954. "An instructor has a responsibility to report to the Dr. Oliver presently lives in Lansdowne with his wife Honor Board any violation of the Honor Code which he and their five children. He said he expects to go to his new observes. post this summer, after extensive briefing in Washington, V. Honor Board where he has served previously in various State Depart- ment posts. A. Composition. The Honor Board shall be composed of 11 undergraduate students, two each from the College, College for Women, Engineering Schools, and Wharton School, and one each from the School of Nursing and the National Academy of Sciences School of Allied Medical Professions, to be appointed by the head(s) of the student government(s) subject to the Honors Three at Pennsylvania concurrence of the appropriate academic deans, the 11th Three members of the University family were honored member to be appointed under the same conditions by the by the National Academy of Sciences at its annual meeting head(s) of the student government(s) from among the in Washington April 28. undergraduate student body in such a manner that repre- Dr. Detlev W. Bronk, a Trustee of Pennsylvania and sentation among the undergraduate schools is rotated. Ap- currently Director of the Rockefeller Institute in New pointments shall be made effective with the beginning of York, was awarded the Academy's Public Welfare Medal, each academic year, which shall be the junior year of each given for contributions to science as a whole rather than new appointee, and shall continue for two consecutive in any specific field. academic years. Two members of the faculty were among the 35 scien- B. Adjudication. The basic function of the Honor tists elected to membership in the organization. They are Board is to determine whether an alleged violation of the Dr. Thomas Foxen Anderson, Professor of Biophysics and Honor System does in fact constitute a violation of the senior member of the Institute for Cancer Research, and Code.

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