The Honor Committee, in conjunction with the University's Center for Survey Research, will release a survey on Monday to faculty members in an effort to improve the honor system at the University, and to explore the factors motivating the report of honor violations, according to Honor Committee members.
"We want to be able to understand the faculty's perspective on the honor system," Honor Committee Chair David Hobbs said. "We're surveying the entire faculty, and want to gather all the feedback we can, so that honor can take the next steps to improve the system with faculty experiences in mind."
Hobbs said he hopes faculty members can shed light on how the system works in their classrooms, and how students interpret the system.
"One of the main things [we want to improve] is the process of honor, and how actual cases are administered," Hobbs said. "The faculty have a lot of insight as to how well our education initiatives are working, and how students in the University perceive the honor system, and how it's playing out in the classroom."
Center for Survey Research director Tom Guterbock said he hopes the survey will be effective in reflecting faculty members' thoughts concerning the honor system, and will identify any problems they find within the system.
Guterbock said while this is not the first survey concerning the honor system, he believes it is probably one of the better ones.
"In the questionnaire, we did draw on some prior surveys that have been done, sometimes by outside firms," Guterbock said.
This survey is especially significant because it targets faculty members rather than students, Guterbock said.
Vice Chair for Trials Stewart Ackerly said he believes faculty members can share a unique perspective.
"I think with faculty, they have a much longer-term perspective than students," said Ackerly. "We're just hoping to get a better idea of what would encourage faculty to report cases, and what they'd like to see done."
According to Ackerly, the survey has been on the committee's agenda since April of 2005, and the Honor Committee started working in conjunction with the Center for Survey Research this past fall.
"We are doing the survey through the Internet, requesting participation from all members of the instructional faculty and teaching assistants," said Guterbock.
The Honor Committee and the Provost's Office are sharing the $23,000 cost of the survey, each paying half, Hobbs said.
According to Debbie Rexrode, graduate student in sociology and research analyst at the Center, the analysts will draft a report to the honor committee by mid-March.
"We want to make sure these results can be used by the current honor committee before they leave office," said Guterbock.
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