By Steve Babcock

The call from the Student Government Association and several university offices for the university to provide a more visible, uniform university honor code has been “responded to” by university administration, according to those close to the issue.

The push for a university-wide honor code, which would set penalites for classroom infringements such as plagarism, has come in the wake of SGA legislation last year that called for a uniform honor code’s creation. Currently, the university is reliant upon individual colleges to carry out the enforcement and policymaking for academic integrity in the classroom.

Andres Vargas, SGA’s vice president of academic affairs, acknowledged the need for a new code.

“Under the current system, a journalism major is treated differently than a student in the College of Engineering in terms of responsibility to integrity because those schools have different policies,” he said. “The College of Engineering has set the example by having students sign a form saying they will act with honor at the beginning of each quarter.”

“The Student Government Association spoke when it passed legislation over a year ago and now its time to ensure that the voice of the students is heard,” said Michael Romano, SGA’s vice president of student affairs. “If Northeastern is committed to being a top 100 university then it needs to reflect it.”

According to the Director of University Communications Ed Klotzbier, the university code of student conduct in the student handbook “sets the standard” for academic integrity at Northeastern.

However, the provost has formed a comittee in response to SGA’s legislation that according to William Fischer, the committee’s chair, will conduct a survey on what he calls “academic integrity” in the spring to find out if the university would support the idea of a uniform honor code.

SGA legislation, along with Fischer, have proposed that actions taken as a result of the new code would be, like the College of Engineering, having students sign forms at the top of exam blue books, along with increased faculty attention to the policy in all syllabi and explaining the policy during the first class session. Unlike honor codes that exist in smaller instiutions, the proposed honor code for Northeastern will have less student accountability in the punishment process.

In an article written by Fischer, who is also the director of the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, a “modified” honor code, as it is termed, is called different for a traditional honor code because it would not include “provisions for unproctored exams, a written pledge, or a requirement for students to report themselves or others for the violations of the policy.”

Fischer called the administration “responsive” to the calls of himself and SGA to look into the creation of a uniform honor code, but also acknowledged the student’s integrity in pushing for the code.

“I am proud of our students,” said Fischer, “that they take academic integrity so seriously in times like these, with situations like Enron. Students need to stay active in the process, sitting on the judicial board and other committees that are related to establishing the code.”

From a student government agenda that has been buried behind troubles with semester conversion, the university budget, investigating student fees, and troubles with academic advising, Fischer, in Romano’s opinion, has provided a needed amount of attention to the students’ work.

“Mr. Fischer has been instrumental in orchestrating efforts to make progress and it is his work that has kept our efforts alive,” said Romano.

Still, SGA President Richard Schwabacher thinks the process is not moving fast enough.

“The work that was done for the legislation was enough to show the need for the honor code,” Schwabacher said. “There is no need for more surveys or committees to show that a uniform policy should be in place.”