Bryn Mawr College Honor Code

Preamble

Whereas, we, the members of the Undergraduate College of Bryn Mawr College, demonstrate our interest in each individual's capacity for personal integrity and our belief in the principles of self-governance by affirming our student community on a system of academic and social honor;

Whereas, this system depends for its success on continuing support from every member of the Association, from those attending classes at Bryn Mawr, and those visiting our community;

Whereas, this demands that each student live with integrity and discretion in her own life and with respect and concern for others within the larger cooperative community; therefore be it

Resolved, that we, the members of the Self Government Association of the Undergraduate College of Bryn Mawr College, do hereby adopt this Honor Code:

We, the members of the Undergraduate College of Bryn Mawr, have come together in this community in order to create an environment in which each member is able to realize her full potential — a potential which is realized through intellectual and social growth. Such an environment is possible in a community that values respect and concern for individuals and with this respect and concern, a commitment to communication. We have founded our community on the honor and integrity of its members. We trust that each student will be guided by the values of this community. Such trust is essential to maintaining the reciprocity on which our community is based.

Our intellectual and social development requires freedom born from trust. For growth requires more than blind adherence to a code of conduct, it requires reflection — reflection upon our actions and how our actions affect those with whom we share the community. Such reflection is only possible when one’s judgment is trusted.

Growth also requires that we take responsibility for our judgments, actions, and also for our student community. At the heart of growth is the process of learning. Learning is dependent upon an exchange of ideas, a dialogue that can only occur when there is mutual trust, respect, and concern. These qualities are natural in a community where the members are aware of their inter-relation and inter-dependence. Through the community we are able to create an atmosphere for growth and learning as the maintenance of the community has the identical requirement for success as does the process of learning-dialogue.

The quest for the realization of potential that has spawned this community has an intellectual component that extends to a mastery of academic subjects. Fundamental to intellectual development is a social one in which the members of this community reflect upon citizenship and what it means to belong to this community, or any community. The environment for learning that we have endeavored to create rests upon our sense of responsibility to the community, our peers within the community, and to ourselves. Basic to this learning process and the growth of this community and her members are a respect for and value of each member as an individual and also for the wealth of diverse experiences and backgrounds each of us brings to our community.

Although we entered into a community that existed before our arrival, we recreate the community through our participation. Our continued commitment not only to our own development, but to that of our sisters, results in the enrichment of our atmosphere, the strengthening of our foundation, and the constant reaffirmation of our community.

Although our community is based on mutual respect and trust, tensions often arise between interests of individuals and community needs. Because of the diverse experiences and backgrounds of the members of this community, conflicts centering on differences among individuals develop. We recognize that acts of discrimination and harassment, including, but NOT limited to, acts of racism, homophobia, classism, ableism, and discrimination against religious and political minorities are devoid of respect and therefore, by definition, violate this Code.

Our student community does not stand alone — it is part of the larger Bryn Mawr community. The web of inter-dependence that characterizes our community includes all students taking courses at Bryn Mawr and extends to faculty, administration, and staff. While the jurisdiction of a student Honor Board does not extend beyond the student community, this community is enriched when the principles that govern student interactions form the basis for our interactions with all those with whom we share the community.

We recognize that in our interactions with members of our community, problems and conflicts do arise. We have developed procedures by which such problems can be resolved — procedures which are based on the principles of self-governance and the need for communication. Basic to these procedures is a dialogue between the parties involved in the conflict. If such a dialogue does not result in the resolution of a problem, a student Honor Board will assist the parties in arriving at a resolution of the situation.

Procedures By Which a Problem May Be Resolved

If it is unclear whether a matter should be addressed by the Academic or Social Honor Board, the Head of the Honor Board in conjunction with the Dean of the Undergraduate College shall decide to whom the matter will be referred.

Academic

If a student or another member of the community (including members of the faculty) suspects that the actions of another student are not consistent with the academic aspects of the Honor Code, she should talk to the student who committed the alleged violation to determine whether or not a potential violation may have occurred. If, after the confrontation, the confronting student still believes that a violation may have occurred, she should ask the confronted student to report herself to the Honor Board. If the student refuses to report herself to the Honor Board, the other student or member of the community with knowledge of the action in question should report her to the Honor Board.

This process of confrontation should be conducted in a completely confidential manner.

Social

If a student is offended by the actions of another student, either personally or because she believes them to be detrimental to the community, she should confront the student directly. The two students should attempt to reach a compromise or settle the problem between them in some way. Confrontation is not a hostile action. It is a discussion of the issues involved, an "exchange of values" and an "expression of concern." It is a dialogue resulting in a viable solution for both persons involved. In conflicts where a third party may be helpful, the following resource people are available.

The Hall Adviser's role is that of advising the students on how to use the Honor Code. Hall advisers may, if asked by one of the conflicting parties, help facilitate, but not mediate, the resolution of prolonged disputes. They are a part of the support network during repeated attempts at confrontation; they may give advice to both sides.

If the problem remains unsolved, a formal mediation may be desired. Mediation is a process by which a trained, neutral third party assists the parties in a conflict to arrive at a resolution through facilitating communication. The Mediation Intake Coordinator is available to explain the process, to find available mediators, and to schedule mediation. She works closely with the Honor Board to organize the mediation program. The Mediation Intake Coordinator also meets at the beginning of each academic year with the Residence Council Co-heads to discuss the role of mediation and room changes.

Dorm Presidents are the extensions of the Social Honor Board in each dorm. When a formal mediation is desired, a Dorm President, or an Honor Board member, or an appointed undergraduate/McBride mediator, may act as an objective third party to mediate.

Customs people, because it is necessary that they maintain good relations with both sides of a dispute, are asked not to participate in mediation or confrontation between freshwomen in their halls. They may refer conflicting parties to the appropriate resource people. In problems that arise outside of the hall community, an Honor Board member should be consulted.

Confidentiality is important; knowledge of the problem should be confined to as limited a group of people as possible.

Hearings

Steps Toward a Hearing:

1. If a student believes that an infraction of the Honor Code has occurred, she or he should confront the student involved. If either party is unsure about what constitutes an infraction, she or he should consult a member of the Honor Board. If the two parties determine that no infraction occurred, no further action is needed. If, however, it is determined that an infraction may have occurred, proceed to step 2.

2. The confronted student should contact the Head of the Honor Board within 48 hours to tell her that an infraction may have occurred. After 48 hours, the confronting party should contact the Honor Board to determine whether she has been contacted by the confronted student. If the Honor Board Head has not been contacted, the confronting party should give her the name of the confronted student, so that the Honor Board Head can contact her.

3. If, in academic cases, the confronting party is a student, she or he may be represented during the hearing by the professor involved. The confronting student, however, may be asked to write a statement for the hearing. For both academic and social cases, both the confronting and confronted parties must write separate statements explaining the circumstances as they perceive them. In ordinary circumstances the statements should be submitted to the Honor Board within 72 hours after the confronted student and the Honor Board have made contact.

4. The hearing must be scheduled within a week after the Honor Board Head receives the statements from both parties. The Honor Board Head informs the confronted student of her or his option to seek advice before the hearing from both her or his dean and senior counsel member of the Board.

Procedures for the Conduct of a Hearing

The Senior Council of the Honor Board and/or the Head of the Honor Board talk to the persons involved prior to each hearing.

Academic Hearings

In academic cases, the Honor Board Head and the Dean of the Undergraduate College will read both statements to determine if a hearing is warranted. Both the confronting and the confronted party submit written statements to the Head of the Honor Board before the hearing. At the hearing, the statements previously submitted to the Honor Board will be read by Board members. Both parties may read all written statements. In the hearing, the confronted student has the option to be present for all testimony given. The Honor Board should meet before the student and the professor arrive to read the statements. When dealing with academic cases, the Honor Board consists of the Dean of the Undergraduate College, three members of the faculty elected by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, seven student members elected as representatives of their respective classes by the Association and the Head of the Honor Board, also elected by the Association. The student's dean will attend the entire hearing. No more than three student members and one faculty member of the Academic Honor Board may be absent from an academic hearing. The student's dean is present during the entire hearing, but does not have a vote in the final decision. The hearing is conducted in an informal manner. As soon as the hearing is over, the student is informed of the decision of the Board by both the Honor Board Head and the Dean of the Undergraduate College. The student reads the written statement of the decision of the Honor Board and makes a check mark to verify that she has read and understood the decision. The Honor Board Head and the Dean of the Undergraduate College initial the statement to verify the same. Possible penalties for academic cases range from counseling during the hearing, to rewriting a paper, to failing a course, to being excluded from the College. Combinations of several penalties may be used, or more fitting ones devised as circumstances warrant.

The professor of the confronting party is informed first by phone or in person by the Dean of the Undergraduate College. The Dean also sends a confidential memo to the professor reiterating the decision of the Board. A copy of this memo will be kept in the anonymous records.

A hearing is kept completely confidential. However, records of all academic cases are kept. Each record includes all written statements, the minutes and the Honor Board's finial decision in the case. Only the Dean of the Undergraduate College has access to the Honor Board Records. They may be consulted by her dean if the student asks for a letter of recommendation. After a year, an anonymous synopsis of the case is published for the benefit of the community. Appeals of decisions of the Academic Honor Board may be made to the President of the College within one week of the conclusion of the hearing. Appeals may only be made in cases where the procedure followed is questionable; decisions involving separation and exclusion are automatically appealed. The appeal must be presented in writing. The President will review all materials from the hearing, and the decision of the Honor Board in respect to the complaint of the confronted student. The President will not hear new evidence. The President may uphold any decision of the Honor Board, reverse that decision, or call for a new hearing.

Social Hearings

The Head of the Honor Board, along with the Senior Counsel and one other board member, will collect written statements and determine if a hearing is warranted and which witnesses will be heard. The confronted student is allowed to hear all testimony and in the event that she decides to speak, speaks last.

Hearings for possible social infractions of the Code are conducted in the same manner as are the hearings for academic cases. Penalties for social violations can range from removal from or resettlement in a hall to exclusion from the College. Combinations of several penalties may be used, or more fitting ones devised as circumstances warrant.

Hearings are confidential. However, minutes of all social cases are kept. After a year, an anonymous synopsis of the case is published for the benefit of the community.

Appeals of decisions of the Social Honor Board must be directed to the President of the Association, in writing, within one week of the conclusion of the hearing. Appeals may only be made in cases where the procedure followed is questionable; decisions involving separation and exclusion are automatically appealed. The President of the Association will appoint two members of the Assembly to an appeal committee. The student bringing the appeal selects one member of the Assembly to serve on the appeal committee. Those three choose two more members; the five elect a chairperson. The appeal committee invites the Head of the Honor Board to respond in writing to the complaint, and reviews this and all other written materials. It may interview the student bringing the appeal and the Head of the Honor Board. The appeal committee may uphold the Honor Board's decision, reverse the decision, or order a new hearing. It reports in writing to the President of the SGA. The appeal committee must complete its work in one sitting.

Final appeal may be directed in writing to the President of the College and the President of the Association within three days of receipt of the decision of the appeal committee. The Presidents will review all materials from the hearing and the appeal. They may uphold the decision of the appeal committee, reverse it, or order a new hearing.

The Honor Board

The Honor Board is responsible for the administration and facilitation of the Honor Code. This includes an orientation for freshwomen each fall within the customs groups conducted by a HA in conjunction with an Honor Board member. The Honor Board exists in two forms, the Academic Honor Board and the Social Honor Board.

The Academic Honor Board consists of the Dean of the Undergraduate College, three members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, three students from the junior class, two students from the sophomore class, two first-year students, and one student elected as Head of the Honor Board by members of the Association.

The Social Honor Board consists of the eight permanent members who sit on the Academic Honor Board and four rotating members (one from each class) selected at random from the Association.

The Senior Counsel serves as the support person for the confronted party in that she makes clear the procedure of the hearing to the confronted party and accompanies the Honor Head to present the resolution to this party. The Secretary takes minutes at meetings, writes abstracts, and takes care of the Honor Board budget. The Mediation Program Liaison works closely with the mediation intake coordinators to schedule mediation and to organize the mediation program.

Since it is important for both the Senior Counsel and the Secretary to have an understanding from the experience of the hearing procedure, the Honor Board Head, in consultation with the Honor Board, shall appoint elected members of the Board to these positions based on the length of term and/or total time served on the Board. The Mediation Program Liaison shall likewise be appointed. The jurisdiction of the Honor Board extends to all members of the Undergraduate College. The Board has the authority to justify any sanction up to failure of an examination or paper, failure of a course, exclusion from a residence hall, exclusion from campus housing or expulsion from the College. In Academic Honor Board cases, decisions for suspension or expulsion from the College are immediately appealed to the President of the College for final action. Any other verdict may be appealed on procedural grounds to the President of the College according to the procedures outlined above. In Social Honor Board cases, verdicts may be appealed on procedural grounds to a select group of the Assembly according to the procedures outlined above. They will automatically be appealed in verdicts involving separation or exclusion.

Policies and Procedures

Academic Resolutions

These resolutions are to preserve and ensure the integrity of the College and of the individuals within it. Each student is responsible for the integrity of her own academic work. Thus, it is important that each student read and understand these academic resolutions, as she will be held responsible for them.

Examinations and Quizzes

Students are not to reveal the form, content, or degree of difficulty of any examination or quiz. Discretion should be used in discussing the examination and in disposing of the examination.

Examinations at the end of each semester will be conducted without proctors in the examination rooms. However, one or more student proctors will remain in each building to be called in case of emergency and to maintain quiet. There should be no talking in the examination rooms. A student may leave an examination but should not create a disturbance. On completion of examinations, students are requested to leave the building promptly and quietly. Examinations will be written in 'blue books' or on other paper provided by the College. Students are urged to occupy alternate seats where space permits. Students should not bring books and papers into the examination room unless told to do so by the instructor.

In an examination that is scheduled, the instructor or the instructor's representative may stay in an examination room for about fifteen minutes at the beginning of an examination to answer questions, and may return at the close of the examination to collect papers. Students, upon completing, shall leave all 'blue books' on the instructor's desk or as otherwise instructed. Quizzes will be conducted in the same manner except that the instructor may remain in the room. Quizzes will ordinarily begin at ten past the hour, and students are responsible for observing time limits. In self-scheduled examinations, students must stop writing at the time specified by the instructor.

Both the self-scheduled examination questions and the 'blue books' will be returned to the proctor in Thomas after the students complete them. The same standard of integrity is expected of students in cases of 'take-home' or 'open book' examinations, or any type of examination. The time allowed for a 'take-home' examination or quiz is considered to run from the time the student opens the examination through the time limit specified by the instructor. A student may not use course materials, or seek any other outside help, unless specifically instructed to do so.

Other Academic Work

Any student who is uncertain about the application of the following rules to any particular assignment should ask the instructor for more explicit directions. In reports and other written work, sources of information and of ideas and opinions not the student's own must be clearly indicated; the source of direct quotations must be acknowledged. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism. In laboratory work, each student, unless otherwise directed, is expected to make all the necessary measurements, drawings, etc., independently, from her own observations of the material provided. All records, including numerical data for working out results, are to be used by the student independently and as initially recorded. Collaboration among students in the preparation of work may take place as approved by the instructor. Permission must be obtained in advance from all professors concerned if a paper is to be submitted for credit in more than one course. If the paper has been used in a previous course or another school, the current professor should be made aware of the fact.

Library

Use of library resources is subject to the Honor Code, as well as normal library regulations. It is the responsibility of the students to acquaint themselves with the regulations regarding the use of library materials, especially those materials on reserve. If a student fails to return a library book on time, despite requests from the librarian, it will be considered an infraction of the Academic Honor Code, and will be dealt with accordingly.

Social Resolutions of the Honor Code

The Social Honor Code attempts to reconcile the often conflicting demands of community and personal responsibility to create an atmosphere in which individuals interact effectively. Only policies approved by the vote of the Self-Government Association fall under the jurisdiction of the Honor Board. The social resolutions represent guidelines for conduct in areas where a need for community agreement on behavior exists, and may at times restrict the maximum freedom of each individual. Confrontation is appropriate whenever a student feels that her rights have been infringed upon. The following resolutions do not exhaust all situations in which confrontation may be appropriate.

Confidentiality

The right of each student to privacy shall be preserved except in cases of dire emergency. When answering phones, no information concerning any student may be released without an express directive from the student. This same concern should be considered when replying to written or verbal requests for information about another member of the Association or the larger community.

Guests

Every guest on the campus is bound by the Honor Code regulations while staying on the campus; future visits by guests who have violated these regulations may be restricted. Each student is responsible for seeing that her guests are acquainted with the resolutions of the Association. [The student will not be penalized for a guest's failure to comply with the resolutions if the guest has been informed of them. This statement refers ONLY to the student social honor code procedures. The student and their guest may be subject to College administrative procedures and penalty.] Guests may be received in students' rooms at any hour. For the security of the halls, any stranger should be escorted to the public rooms, to the room of the person being visited, or out of the hall. Men's use of bathrooms shall be determined by each corridor in any women's hall. It is a College rule that guests may stay in halls for short visits only. Violations may be reported to the Dean of the Undergraduate College.

Dormitory Life

Decisions pertaining to the specific door-keeping practices, smoking areas, and quiet hours of each dormitory will be determined at the first dorm meeting of each academic year.

Faculty

Members of the faculty are not under the jurisdiction of the Honor Code but may participate in confrontation. Complaints about a faculty member should first be made to the professor and then to the Dean of the Undergraduate College.

Other Institutions

If a Bryn Mawr student is in violation of the honor system of another institution, including those with which Bryn Mawr has cooperative agreements (except Haverford, with whom there is a special agreement), that violation will be adjudicated at that institution. The student should report the case to the Bryn Mawr Honor Board, but ordinarily no action will be taken at Bryn Mawr.

Special Agreement with Haverford College

College A may be either Bryn Mawr or Haverford College, depending on where the case originates.

1. When College A concludes a hearing of a case involving a student from College B with a recommendation for action which requires enforcement by College B, the student will have five days to appeal to the President of College A, using College A's appeal procedures. If, after the appeal period, there remain some results which must be enforced by College B, that recommendation is forwarded by the appropriate person in College A to the appropriate person in College B (i.e. when an appeal was heard, by the President of College A to the Dean of College B; when there was no appeal, by the Dean of Haverford College to the Dean of Bryn Mawr College; or by the Head of the Bryn Mawr Honor Board to the Dean of Haverford College).

2. At College B, an inquiry will be made by the dean and the student head of Honor Board or Council. It is understood that this should not constitute a second hearing of the case, but all materials from the hearing should be available to the inquiry, which may also call upon anyone involved for further questioning. The inquiry will not affect the resolution of the case in those areas where enforcement is within the authority of College A, but will only decide whether the recommendation for action referred to College B will be accepted, modified, or rejected. The student has five days to appeal the results of the inquiry to the President of College B, whose decision is final.

Policies on Alcohol and Drugs

The College's policies on alcohol and drugs are also included in this Honor Code.

Students should be familiar with both the Bryn Mawr and the Haverford Honor Codes, as one is expected to adhere to the Code of the campus one is on. There are several significant differences between the Colleges' Honor Codes of which each student should be aware.