Honor codes are a relic of earlier times, not designed to “last into the current environment,” one expert said.
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Ionut Ispas and Dmitrii Maslov/iStock/Getty Images
The already-small number of colleges with full-fledged, student-enforced honor codes is dwindling. After a three-year pilot of proctored exams, Stanford University student, faculty and administrative leaders decided in April that the university will allow proctoring for all in-person tests starting in September. Princeton University faculty approved a similar plan a month later. In making those decisions, both institutions grappled with students’ increasing use—sanctioned and not—of artificial intelligence.
AI is at the “forefront” of honor code reform, said JT Torres, director of the Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington and Lee University. The technology is everywhere—baked into browsers and word processors, embedded in learning management systems and in students’ phones, smart watches and sometimes even glasses. It’s ubiquitous and tempting, especially for young students under pressure, according to Tricia Bertram Gallant, director of the Academic Integrity Office and Triton Testing Center at the University of California, San Diego.
