Forty percent of University students would report an Honor offense if they witnessed an act of lying, cheating, or stealing according to an Honor Committee survey released Sunday evening.
The survey was conducted via email through the Institutional Assessment and Studies office, a group that facilitates similar polls. It sampled 1700 students, and responses indicated that three quarters of respondents felt positively about the honor system and believed it was an effective system.
The Committee received 1,250 responses, whereas its 2008 University survey received only half the number of responses.
This year’s survey had a two percent margin of error, and the results from the international student body were pulled from a lower number of respondents than either the undergraduate or graduate student populations.
The results of the survey will be used to better inform the Committee’s viewpoints, Honor Committee Chair Nash said.
Poll participants included undergraduate students, graduate students, and international students at the University.
Of the 1,250 respondents, 1,142 disclosed that their main deterrent from reporting an offense was because they thought the offense was not serious enough to be reported, and 1,039 students cited their biggest deterrent as uneasiness about the possibility of a student being expelled.
The largest support for the single sanction policy came from international students, with more than 65 percent of respondents in favor of single sanction. Total student body support for the penalty was marginally lower, at 60 percent.
Five percent of students polled reported they had committed an honor offense, and 18 percent reported they had witnessed or were aware of an honor offense.
The results compared favorably to those from 2008 Nash said, noting six percent of respondents admitted to committing an offense in 2008.
The survey results were all pieces of a larger puzzle honor is trying to figure out, Nash said. “There are certainly interesting pieces of information here, and we’re trying to get at the heart of contentious issues discussed last year,” he said.
More than 68 percent of graduate students have never attended an honor event, compared to 44 percent of undergraduate students who had not attended one, according to the survey.
“One thing the survey shows is that graduate students aren’t seeing much from us,” Vice Chair for Education Mary Kidd said. “We do a huge midterms and finals push in the College, but how can we do this in the grad schools?”
The Committee plans to upload the data onto Honor’s website by the end of the week.
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