After Harvard scandal, CPUC to discuss honor code

In preparation for the meeting, U-Councilors, who act as council representatives for the student body, have been gathering feedback from students through a variety of media, including Facebook. U-Councilors Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15 and Elan Kugelmass ’14 both posted status updates last week asking for students’ thoughts on the academic calendar as well as the clarity of the Honor Code.

Both Okuda-Lim and Kugelmass referred comments to U-Council chair Hae Bin Kim ’13, who said the Facebook outreach was part of a concerted effort by USG to get student feedback on academic integrity — an issue that Kim said affects many students in a variety of ways, some of which aren’t obvious at first glance.

“Academic integrity is a very large issue, and it can touch people in ways that cannot be expected by people ... so it was very important that we gather feedback,” Kim said.

The discussion regarding academic integrity comes after a cheating scandal rocked Harvard earlier this semester, prompting Harvard officials to look into changing their own academic honesty policies. Harvard has considered adopting an honor code similar to that of Princeton.

Kim, however, said she wasn’t aware if the conversation CPUC is set to have about the Honor Code has anything to do with the recent events at Harvard. Instead, she explained that the beginning of the year was simply a good time to have the discussion, regardless of the situation at other schools.

“[Academic integrity] is being discussed because it’s the beginning of the year, and it’s the first CPUC meeting of the year,” Kim said. “Members of the executive committee thought it would be a good idea to discuss it before the professors were in their groove,” she added.

According to Kim, no policy decisions regarding Princeton’s academic integrity policies will be made at the meeting because CPUC has no legislative power. Instead, the University will simply receive feedback on the current policy, using the CPUC meeting as a starting point for a possible new discussion.

CPUC, made up of administrators, professors, U-Councilors, staff members and alumni, meets six times over the course of the academic year and acts as a forum for discussion on a variety of campus topics. The academic honesty discussion will be led by Deputy Dean of the College Clayton Marsh ’85, Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan and an associate dean of the Graduate School.

University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said Deignan was not available to comment prior to the CPUC meeting.

Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article's headline misstated the agenda of the Council of the Princeton University Community meeting. CPUC will be discussing the honor code and academic integrity as a whole, as opposed to specific changes to the honor code. The 'Prince' regrets the error.