Honor Code Vote Results

Dear students,

The honor code recommendations were included on the SGA presidential election online ballots for students to vote on. These recommendations were endorsed by the Honor Code Review Committee, the Student Government Association, the Faculty Council, and the Community Council. According to the constitution: in order for the recommendations to pass, two thirds of the student body needs to participate in the voting, and two thirds of those need to approve the recommendations.

Voting started at 2:00 pm on Thursday, April 16^th and ended at 5:00 pm on Friday, May 1^st. All recommendations have passed. Below is the breakdown of these votes.

Total number of students registered on campus and studying abroad:                 2643

Number of votes needed (two-thirds the total number of students):                      1762

Number of student voters:                     1854

Article I:

Yes:                 1484

No:                   122

Abstaining:       248

Percentage [yes / (yes + no)]:    92.4%

Article II:

Yes:                 1328

No:                   306

Abstaining:       221

Percentage [yes / (yes + no)]:    81.2%

Article III:

Yes:                 1382

No:                   157

Abstaining:       317

Percentage [yes / (yes + no)]:    89.8%

Thank you for voting and special thanks to everyone who has helped in the process.

Hiba Fakhoury

President of the SGA

Election Results

First: VOTING IS NOT OVER. The honor code proposal needs at least 2/3’s of the student body to vote to approve it.If you haven’t voted in the SGA/Community Council Election you are still able to vote for the honor code. Please do so on go/sgavote.

Second: Because no president candidate received a 50% majority, there will be a run-off election at noon next Thursday April 23rd to noon Friday, April 24th between the top two candidate’s, Vrutika Mody and Michael Panzer.

Third: Molly Dwyer is the new Student Co-Chair for Community Council. Congratulations to Molly.

Results:

SGA President:
Vrutika Mody             356   (Run-off)
Michael Panzer            278  (Run-off)
Pathik Root               199
Nicholas Alexander      133
Andrew Deloach  177
Nicholas Sohl           88

Community Council:
Molly Dwyer             466   (Winner)
Ethan Schmertzler       170
Shen Yoong              161

IDC News: Socio-economic Lecture

On Saturday, April 18th, 2009 IDC is bringing Rachel Rybaczuk to address the community on matters regarding socio-economic diversity.  She is currently a professor at UMass Amherst, teaching a class on socioeconomics in higher education. As a graduate student (also at UMass) she was a part of the Roosevelt Institute. Her personal experience of coming from a low income background, struck her particularly as an undergraduate student, and is part of what drew her to this issue; along with later experience in admissions, which gives her a particularly intimate knowledge of the intersection between class and campus dynamics.  Rachel is also a well published author on the subject.  Hope to see you all on April 18th, in McCullough!

IDC News: Africana Studies Panel

We are working to organize a panel with students and professors who are affliated with the African Studies Program in order to obtain information about our current program (i.e. the courses, its structure etc.) while also seeing what it lacks (i.e. not enough courses etc.)  This panel, we hope, will occur before the end of the year.  This is just another step in our attempts to gather information and be fully prepared when we actually start presenting the major to the College.

~Family Gallery~

Family Gallery! Facebook Group

please send us your family portraits!! (again, family is whoever has been a constant and major influence in your life)  We are trying to get as many pictures as possible so please please send us your pictures. 

Send to:  jmrodrig@middlebury.edu by April 10th!

 

-Institutional Diversity Committee (IDC)

Chahar Shanbeh Soori-Persian New Year=Success!!

The Persian New Year’s celebration, aka Chahar Shanbeh Soori was an amazing event.  Thank you to Yassmin Mohamedi for all her hard work!  Not only is this a ritual that many people are unaware of, but also it is so fun!  So again Yassmin, thank you for organizing this.  Happy New Year!  -Institutional Diversity Committee (IDC)

SGA CRISIS CONTEST

It’s time to start getting paid for thinking!

As you all know, the economic crisis has affected our financial situation significantly and we need your help in dealing with it. So, the SGA is holding a CRISIS CONTEST; we need your input and we will pay you for it.

To participate: Send an email to sga@middlebury.edu with a brilliant and original idea of yours that you think will reduce cost in any of the following categories, there are no limits as to how many ideas you can send, but please specifiy the category when you email us:

• Residential Life
• The Commons
• Dining
• Library Services
• Affiliates of Middlebury College (Schools abroad, the Monterey Institute, Language school, etc.)
• Auxiliary Operations (The Grille, Midd Express, Golf Course, Wilson Café, etc.)
• Student Organizations
• A Revenue Generating Idea in Any Category
• Other

Rules: All ideas must abide by the college’s priorities in dealing with this crisis (i.e. you can’t eliminate faculty/staff jobs, financial aid, etc.). Please refer to President Liebowitz’s notes for more information and updates:

http://www.middlebury.edu/administration/budget/challenge/

Deadline: This Friday, March 20^th 2009

Prizes: There will be two cash prizes in each category. The first prize is $150 and the second is $50.

Results will be announced shortly after spring break.

HAIRBALL: Cheating, Grades and Workload

The Honor Code Review Committee recently released a report which outlines rates of cheating at Middlebury and recommendations on how to fix the problem.  The report contains some great material (awesome job, HCRC!), including a recommendation that test administrators separate self-scheduled-exam takers into two groups: open-book-test takers and closed-book-test takers.  They also recommended that the students amend their constitution to allow faculty-proctored exams. This recommendation kicked up a serious verbal dust storm on campus. Students, faculty and administrators have been chatting for weeks about the nature of trust, honor and a Middlebury degree.

I’m worried we’re missing the bigger issue. It’s a huge moral failing that students (and so many of them) cheat (I’m having a lot of trouble digesting this news…), but I want to dig a little deeper. Honor Code flouters are unquestionably wrong, but it’s too simple to reduce the problem to a cheaters= bad equation.

I want to explore the reasons students  sacrifice their integrity for letter grades. The Middlebury community (and society in general) relies on grades too heavily. This issue undercut the conversations about “grade inflation” over the past few years too. I disagree with the term “grade inflation”. Instead, it is “grade inaccuracy”, and I encourage students, faculty and administrators to start a trend and use my new term. Grades are wildly inconsistent between departments, classes and even between professors who teach the same classes. The elephant in the room with the Honor Code discussion is the reduction of complicated, unique individuals into numbers at graduation.

(I’ll lay my biases on the table: twenty to thirty years from now I want to start a school without grades. I’ve been rolling and crafting my ideal school in my head for about six or seven years now. If you catch me staring off into space, I’m probably rewriting my school’s honor code…)

Workload is the second issue beneath the Honor Code discussion. Middlebury students work too much, and Middlebury faculty assign too much work. The Student Educational Affairs Committee (SEAC) will release a survey within the next few weeks, which will attempt to pin down some of the workload related issues on campus. Before the results come in, I’ll tell you anecdotally that the work here drives some students into depression, self-confidence valleys, identity crises and illness. I’ll also tell you that I wasn’t the only student to crawl out of the bowels of the library when it closed at 11 pm tonight (yes, it’s Saturday)…The heavy workload may drive students to cheat, but it also contributes to a problematic academic situation: when students have too much work, they don’t have the time to reflect on what they learn. If faculty assigned less work at Middlebury, students may actually learn more.

We cannot separate our overreliance on grades and heavy workload  from issues of cheating at Middlebury. To borrow a term from my Professor Laurie Essig: grades, workload and cheating all combine to form a “hairball” we can’t easily untangle.

Okay, that was a fun break. Now, back to my thesis…

All the best,

Katie Hylas

How to Save Middlebury’s Unique Honor Code…

Five years ago (almost to the day), I sat fidgeting and drooling in my chair during an info session at Emma Willard House. Compared to the other small, eastern, liberal arts schools, Middlebury seemed unique: the Feb. program, the grey/white stone, and an unyielding commitment to the environment.

One of the major selling points in my decision to apply early to Middlebury was unproctored exams… I’ve never cheated, but in high school I always felt guilty and nervous as my teachers actively surveyed their classrooms looking for stray eyes and hands. The trusting environment at Middlebury sounded like academic paradise for me.

In my last few weeks at Middlebury, I’m worried that we will lose the trusting environment which contributes so much to Middlebury’s uniqueness. The Honor Code Review Committee, which reviews the Honor Code every four years, recommended that the students amend their constitution to permit faculty- proctored exams.

I think we should take a step back and think about a few things. First, are proctored exams the solution to cheating at Middlebury? Our cheating rates are not all that different from rates at schools which allow faculty proctoring. Second, are we ready to give up on something that makes Middlebury so unique? Or, can we work together (faculty and students) to reinvigorate the honor code in creative ways. I posted a few ideas below.  Please add your own!

All the best,

Katie Hylas

1) Try an oral Honor Code

a. In addition to the written honor code, students should verbally profess, “I did not cheat on this assessment” to their professors.

1. People are less inclined to lie directly to their professors.

2. Reminds people of the honor code an additional time.

2) Elect Student Honor Code Representatives for each Course, Major and Class

a. In academic classes, the representative student would remind the students of the importance of the honor code before and after each exam. Would ask the class directly if they saw or suspected cheating after every assessment.

1. Institutionalizes student responsibilities.

2. Regularly reminds students of commitment to honor code.

3. Could serve as a leading student proctor during exams.

3) Institute 5-10 Minute Honor Code Discussions Prior to Assessments

a. Faculty could initiate discussions about the importance of the honor code prior to exams. Could discuss aloud ways that students might cheat and indicate their faith in both the students and the honor code.

4) Put Honor Code top of Each Syllabus

a. Additional reminder of the importance of the honor code.

5) Put Honor Code on Home Page of Middlebury Website

a. If it’s something we’re proud of, let’s show it off!

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