New honor kitchen opened in Webb Hall

Randolph College recently opened its first honor kitchen to provide more amenities in residence halls while also giving students another privilege based on the Honor Code.

Glenna Gray ’14, chair of the judiciary committee, and Jim Kwon ’14, president of
student government, show some dishes and utensils in the new honor kitchen.

Located in the large lounge on the lower floor of Webb Hall, the honor kitchen is stocked with all of the general utensils that a student might need to cook a meal including pots, pans, baking sheets, and more. Students are trusted to take care of the kitchen items as well as clean them after use.

Jim Kwon ’14, student government president, was excited to see this concept come to life. “I thought the honor kitchen would be a great way to provide students with kitchen utensils, which are expensive to buy, as well as to provide an additional environment where the honor system is integrated with student's life,” he said.

If the honor kitchen in Webb is successful, the concept may be implemented in other student kitchens in Randolph’s residence halls.

Randolph College’s historic Honor Code supports the College’s mission to prepare students to “live and work honorably.” It provides students with privileges such as un-proctored, self-scheduled final exams, and creates an environment of responsibility, allowing students to administer the Honor Code. Learn more about the Honor Code in our most recent “Why Randolph?” video.

Professors present honor code and academic integrity research at national conference

Two Randolph psychology professors recently presented their research on honor codes, cheating, and academic integrity to a standing-room-only audience at a national conference in Hawaii.

Beth Schwartz and Holly Tatum organized the symposium “Why Do Students Cheat: Investigations of Academic Integrity in the Classroom” for the American Psychological Association annual conference this month. The research brought together several scholars who investigate the motivations for cheating and methods for preventing cheating.

“It’s always really exciting when people are that interested,” Tatum said. “I was glad they were there trying to figure out which parts of our research they can use to prevent cheating.”

Schwartz, the Catherine Ehrman Thoresen '23 and William E. Thoresen Professor of Psychology and assistant dean of the College, and Tatum began a research project on academic integrity about two years ago. With the help of Megan Hageman ’13, they investigated the way students’ understanding of academic integrity is affected by an honor code.

“A lot of people look at cheating and what causes cheating,” Schwartz said. “We wanted to look at ways of preventing cheating.”

“Our focus has been more on integrity,” Tatum added.

Their research, which will be published in the journal Ethics and Behavior this fall, found that in small liberal arts colleges, a traditional honor code—under which students feel a responsibility toward the honor code and run the judicial system responding to violations—is more effective at promoting academic honesty than a modified honor code, such as one with a faculty-run judicial process.

Randolph’s Honor Code, overseen by a student judiciary committee and with perks like unproctored, self-scheduled exams, follows the traditional model.

Last year, Hageman expanded the research to look at the way an institution’s size might affect students’ understanding of integrity and cheating. Elizabeth van Noppen ’14 is continuing that research this year.

Schwartz and Tatum organized the symposium at the APA conference to share their findings and collaborate with more professors. They invited Eric Anderman of The Ohio State University, who spoke at Randolph College earlier this year, and David Rettinger of the University of Mary Washington, to present research that complemented their own.

The professors are still receiving feedback from people who attended the symposium. Many have questions about promoting academic integrity.

Tatum said that Hageman’s contributions were crucial to the success of this research and the symposium. “She was involved at every stage in the research,” she said. “She managed the data collection, which was good experience for her and allowed us to do the research.”

In addition to sponsoring the symposium, Schwartz was voted as the vice president for recognitions and awards in the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, a division of the APA.

Speaker describes how to prevent academic cheating

The best way to prevent academic cheating has nothing to do with ensuring students do not use their cell phones during tests or cleverly detecting plagiarism in a paper, Eric Anderman said at Randolph College Tuesday. Instead, cheating is best prevented when students value learning more than they value grades.

Randolph College's student judiciary committee met with Eric Anderman for
dinner and a discussion about promoting academic honesty and integrity.

“Statistically, the student in the classroom where they’re just focused on the grade is much more likely to cheat,” said Anderman, one of the country’s foremost scholars on the subject of why people cheat. “If the take-home message is learning, you’re not going to have a lot of cheating in your class.”

Anderman spoke at Randolph to share insight gained from his years of research about cheating. Academic dishonesty is extremely common, he said, with 86 percent of high school students admitting to cheating at least once. That is a low estimate, Anderman said.

Students engage in cheating by sending text messages to notify friends of test content, making copies of tests using a smartphone, plagiarizing published articles, buying term papers, and even hiring others to take college readiness tests for them, he said. Meanwhile, some teachers have been caught cheating to garner higher standardized test scores for their schools.

Although students in some demographics are more likely to cheat than others, cheating crosses cultural, ethnic, economic, and religious lines. “Whether you do it and whether you think it’s right or wrong are not the same thing,” he said. “There are people who think cheating is wrong, who still do it.”

Anderman shared quotes from high school students who have been interviewed by him and his graduate students at The Ohio State University. Asked about their motivations for cheating, all cited extrinsic motivations: qualifying for a scholarship, getting admitted to a good college that would lead to high-paying jobs, and garnering grades that would please the students’ parents.

He said one way to decrease cheating is to focus more on intrinsic values such as mastery of a topic or the desire to learn more about it, and focus less on testing and grades. Students are less likely to cheat when they are given the opportunity to re-do assignments until they master the material, he said.

Another way to reduce cheating is to create a culture that discourages cheating. Honor codes help create that atmosphere, he said. “The evidence is pretty positive that they do work,” he said.

Anderman learned about Randolph’s honor code while touring the campus on Tuesday and while having dinner with Randolph College’s student judiciary committee, which administers the honor code.  He praised Randolph’s honor code for how involved students are in it and how important it was to each student he met. “Honor codes communicate core values to students about the institutions, but in some institutions, people are not aware of them,” he said.

Convocation emphasizes honor, integrity, purpose

Students, their professors, and College staff rang in the new academic year Tuesday with opening convocation, an event full of class unity and reverence for the College’s academic history.

Representatives of each class carried their class banners into Smith Hall Theatre and displayed them at the front of the auditorium as the seniors processed in wearing their graduation robes—and the funny hats and buttons that are traditional at Randolph.

Randolph College President John E. Klein officially opened the academic year with a discussion of values that the College seeks to develop in each student. “Part of the Randolph College experience is developing a sense of honor, integrity, and purpose,” he said.

Honor and integrity imply honesty and trustworthiness, and both traits are embodied in the College’s Honor Code, Klein said. “For over 100 years, Randolph’s Honor Code has governed student conduct and served as the backbone of life on campus. Our Honor Code helps the College create an atmosphere where trust and respect are more than just words,” he said.

“We trust our classmates to not lie, cheat, or steal. We respect ourselves and others enough that we hold ourselves to the same standards. And we know that we are going to be held accountable for our actions.”

Our Honor Code helps the College create an atmosphere where trust and respect are more than just words.

—John E. Klein

“When you graduate from Randolph,” Klein added, “I hope that this sense of honor and integrity will stay with you, as it has for so many of alumnae and alumni who have gone before you, and help guide you as you face life’s challenges.”

Zara Sibtain ’13, president of the student government, encouraged students to embrace the optimism of the last academic year and carry it forward this year. “Let’s honor our past, but let’s not forget where we’re going—always forward,” she said. “Today, let’s make a promise together to excel in our academics and extracurricular activities. Whatever you’re passionate about, give it your all.”

Klein made an exciting announcement that the National Science Foundation has awarded the College a $600,000 grant to provide scholarships and other support for the college’s science and math programs. It is the largest grant that the college has record of receiving.

Then, College faculty and staff announced the recipients of several much-anticipated awards:

• The Phi Beta Kappa Book Award – Emma Bartholomew ’14
• Katherine Graves Davidson Award – John Abell, economics professor
• Katherine Graves Davidson Scholarship Award – David Schwartz, philosophy professor
• Gillie A. Larew Award for Distinguished Teaching – Rick Barnes, psychology and environmental studies professor

Convocation ended with the traditional singing of the College song, followed by singing around the Sundial.

See more convocation photos in this photo album on the Randolph College Facebook page.

Research shows strength of traditional honor codes

A traditional honor system really can make students less likely to cheat, according to research by a Randolph College student and two professors.

For the past year, Megan Hageman ’13 has worked with psychology professors Beth Schwartz and Holly Tatum to study the concept of academic integrity and learn more about how honor codes affect academic behavior.

Schwartz, the Thoresen Professor of Psychology and assistant dean of the College, said this research could help all schools, including colleges, promote honesty in academic behavior. “A lot of us understand what motivates students to cheat. Now it is time to understand what we can do to motivate students to have academic integrity.”

The interest in studying academic integrity developed after Schwartz, Tatum, and Jerry Wells ’12 co-wrote a chapter about the teaching and learning environment at Randolph College, which is guided by a longstanding traditional honor code. Schwartz saw that there was not enough research into the effectiveness of honor systems. During the 2011 Summer Research Program, she asked Megan Hageman to sort through existing research on the subject and choose topics for further study. They decided to study the way different kinds of honor codes affect student honesty.

Like most traditional-style honor codes, the Randolph honor system includes a student-run adjudication board, unproctored exams, and trust that students will report dishonest behavior.  These systems aim to build a culture of personal responsibility and integrity.

Some schools use a modified honor code, which is often run by the school administration or faculty and lacks many of the features, such as a student-run judicial process, emphasized by the traditional honor systems.

Hageman and Schwartz designed a survey to gauge students’ attitudes toward various behaviors that are sometimes encountered in college. They asked students to read a list of questionable behaviors, such as turning in the same paper for two different classes or consulting a smart phone for help on a test, and rate them as honest or dishonest. They were also asked whether they would report the behavior.

More than 750 students at eight private liberal arts colleges took the survey last year. The results showed that students in colleges with traditional honor systems were more likely to view questionable behaviors as dishonest. Students in a school with a modified honor code answered almost identically to the students in schools without any honor code.

“Previous research has demonstrated that modified honor systems are supposed to decrease the occurrence of academically dishonest behaviors, but we found that not to be the case,” Hageman said.

Hageman helped Schwartz and Tatum conduct the survey and analyze the data. During this year’s Summer Research Program, she presented the research at a convention of the Association for Psychological Science. Then, she worked with Schwartz to write an article about the research, which they plan to submit to a scholarly journal later this summer.

The next phase of the research, which will form Hageman’s senior project, will seek to determine why a traditional honor code is more effective. If they can identify specific attributes that make a traditional system more effective, other colleges could adopt those features to decrease cheating, Schwartz said.

Hageman said this project has helped her learn more about the process of research and writing, but also about what can make honor codes more effective. She hopes her research can stimulate conversation about how to strengthen honor systems and increase academic honesty in other colleges and at Randolph. “Without talking about academic integrity no one can understand it and it cannot become fully ingrained in the culture of the campus,” she said.

Final Exams and the Randolph Honor Code

It's finals week here at Randolph College, the culmination of a semester's worth of work and learning. Students are busy putting finishing touches on papers and cramming for final exams.

Exam Week is different for us than at other colleges. We don't crowd into a big room at the appointed time and hunch over our tests while some grad student watches us like a hawk. Our century-old Honor Code allows students to take their exams unproctored and unscheduled.

Students pick up their examinations and take them one of several predetermined areas, complete their exam, and then return it to a collection point. Nobody watches over them. Students sign their exams with the Honor Pledge to verify the integrity of their work.

The system allows students the freedom to schedule their exams as they see fit. You may choose to take all your exams in the first couple days so that you can leave earlier for winter break. At the same, your roommate might string her exams out over the week to allow enough study time for each. You can take your toughest exam first and get it out of the way or save it for last. It's all up to you.

Learn more about the Randolph College Honor Code > > >

Randolph College Celebrates the Honor System

Randolph College celebrates Judiciary Awareness Week December 1-4, 2009.

Sponsored by the student-run Judiciary Committee, the week serves to celebrate the College's century-old honor system and remind the community of the importance of the honor code to our community.

Activities designed to educate students about how the system works include a daily quiz with high scorers receiving Macon Bookshop gift cards.

"I love my Honor Code" t-shirts are a popular fashion statement this week. Students also are encouraged to sign slips of paper that say "I pledge to uphold the honor code" and post them in Main Hall as well as signing their pledge into a book to be passed on to future generations.

Learn more about the Randolph College Honor System > > >

Honor Pledge

I pledge absolute honesty in my academic work and in all personal relationships at Randolph College.

I will maintain the integrity of my word, and I will respect the rights of others.

Realizing that these standards are an integral part of life at Randolph College, I assume my obligation to uphold this honor pledge.

If at any time I fail to live up to my obligation of this pledge, I will report myself to the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.

I will also ask others to report themselves for any infraction of this pledge.

Zombies Invade Randolph College

Desperate to make it to her next class, she peeks around the corner then takes off. The zombies spot her and give chase. A hail of Nerf darts takes them down and she sprints away. In a rush of relief and exhilaration, she survives... for now.

Such was life at Randolph College during the First Annual Humans vs. Zombies Challenge.

More than 60 students took part in the week-long game trying to survive as humans or thrive as zombies.

"The game brought students together who might not have otherwise never met," said Chris Zielewski, one of the game organizers. "Theatre kids were hanging out with jocks; art majors with physics. Men and women, evens and odds - all working together and having a great time."


Humans prepare to go zombie hunting

About the Game

Humans vs Zombies (HVZ) is played on more than 70 college campuses across the United States.

The game starts with all players on the human "team" wearing flourescent green armbands and one anonymous zombie. When a zombie tags a human, that player becomes a zombie (signified by changing her armband to a headband) who must then try to tag and "turn" humans. Shooting a zombie with a Nerf gun "stuns" them so they are incapable of tagging a human for 15 minutes. If any humans survive the week without being turned, then humans win. If there are no survivors, well then...

The game is restricted to campus with specific "Safe Zones" (classes, dining hall, the Skellar, etc.) where no zombie combat can occur. Zielewski credited the College's Honor Code with keeping the players within bounds. "Not a single social violation, honor code infraction, or judiciary hearing resulted from any player for actions relating to the game," he said.


Defending against the zombie onslaught

The Aftermath

In the end, seven humans survived: Nick Gentile, Melissa Gilbert, Evan Pai, Sarah Bramhall, Donald Wells, Kendrick Williams,and Liliana Stevens.

After the dust settled, the WWRM radio station sponsored an Apocalypse Party: Radioactive Zombie Rave.

"We thought it was pretty immature at first," said one professor who wished to remain anonymous. "But it was a great way for students to let off steam. Next time, I want to play."

Zielewski and fellow organizers Laura Allan and Nick Gentile are planning a spring semester HVZ game. More than 160 students have already expressed interest in playing.

Learn more...

Randolph HVZ Facebook Group

Humans vs Zombies at Wikipedia

National HVZ Site