The Honor Code outlines certain standards of ethical conduct for persons associated with the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. The policies of the Honor Code apply to graduate and undergraduate students, faculty members, and administrators. The Honor Code is based on these tenets:

• Engineers must possess personal integrity both as students and as professionals. They must be honorable people to ensure safety, health, fairness, and the proper use of available resources in their undertakings.
• Students in the College of Engineering community are honorable and trustworthy persons.
• The students, faculty members, and administrators of the College of Engineering trust each other to uphold the principles of the Honor Code. They are jointly responsible for precautions against violations of its policies.
• It is dishonorable for students to receive credit for work that is not the result of their own efforts.

What does the Honor Code Mean?

The Honor code is intended to support and enforce course policies in the College of Engineering. Course instructors have exceptional latitude when preparing the policies for their courses. This can lead to variations between policies of different courses. It is the instructor's responsibility to craft the course policies in accordance with the doctrine of the Honor Code.

Students are responsible for understanding the Honor Code and its implementation in the College of Engineering. Because the specific policies of different faculty members can vary significantly, it is the responsibility of faculty members to specify their policies in writing at the beginning of each semester. Students are responsible for understanding these policies and should consult the instructor if they are unclear. The Honor Code supports the individual course policy, whatever it may be.

If a student feels that his/her instructor is not doing what the Honor Code calls for, the student should contact the instructor or a member of the Honor Council to discuss this, and consider further steps, if needed.

Students of the College of Engineering enrolled in courses offered by other colleges must abide by the policies of the school or college in which the course is offered.  Any suspected policy violations will be referred to the appropriate authorities of the school in question.

Students who are not members of the College of Engineering and who take a course offered by the College are bound by the policies of the Engineering Honor Code.  Any suspected policy violations will be referred to the Engineering Honor Council and Faculty Committee on Discipline.   The appropriate authorities of the school or college of the students involved will be notified.

When Taking an Examination

The Honor Code holds that students are honorable and trustworthy people and encourages them to behave with integrity in all phases of university life. During examinations, the instructor is available for questions, but the examination is not proctored.

The instructor will announce the time and place of the examination. At the start of the examination, the instructor's whereabouts during the exam will be communicated to the class in case a question arises.

Students have the right to at least one empty seat between themselves and their neighbors. This helps ensure comfort during the examination and reduces the temptation to cheat. It is the instructor's responsibility to ensure that there is adequate seating beforehand, and to obtain additional rooms if necessary.

During the examination, students are free to leave the room. Minimal essential conversation is allowed. However, no communication regarding the examination is allowed inside or outside the room. All questions about the examination should be directed to the instructor.

It is the instructor's responsibility to inform the class prior to the examination if aids such as calculators, notes, or textbooks are allowed during the examination.

After each examination, students must write the Honor Pledge in their test books and sign their names under it. The Honor Pledge is as follows:

"I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this examination, nor have I concealed any violations of the Honor Code."

Instructors are not required to grade tests in which the signed Honor Pledge does not appear. The Honor Code remains enforced whether or not the student signs the Pledge.

Students of the College of Engineering enrolled in courses offered by other colleges must abide by the policies of the school or college in which the course is offered. Any suspected policy violations will be referred to the appropriate authorities of the school in question.

Use of Computers and Other Facilities

Each department in the College of Engineering establishes its own general policies on the use of computers, laboratories, and other facilities. In addition, students should observe any specific instructions appearing in computer rooms, laboratories, or libraries.

Students may not submit as their own work a computer program or part thereof which is not the result of their own thought and efforts. Contributions to a program from external sources must be acknowledged and properly documented in accordance with the course policies.

Students may not attempt to access or tamper with the class account of another student unless permission to do so has been given by both the class instructor and the student to whom the account is assigned.

Computers available for students to use are the property of the University of Michigan. Software available for students to use is the property of the University of Michigan or is licensed to the University of Michigan. Any unauthorized attempt to copy software or to tamper with computers or software is a violation of federal law, as well as the Honor Code.

All laboratories, classrooms, office equipment, and libraries are meant for instruction and learning. Misuse of these facilities is a violation of the Honor Code.

Homework and Laboratory Assignments

The principles of the Honor Code apply to homework and laboratory assignments as well as to examinations. The instructor may allow collaboration among students on such assignments. The instructor is to make clear how much, if any, collaboration is permissible. The instructor may also require that students write and sign the Honor Pledge on their homework and lab reports.

It is a violation of the Honor Code for students to submit, as their own, work that is not the result of their own labor and thoughts. Work which includes material derived in any way from the efforts of another author, either by direct quotation or paraphrasing, should be fully and properly documented. To avoid plagiarism, it is necessary to cite all sources of both ideas and direct quotations, including those found on the internet. The basic principle is to provide enough information so that the original source of material can be located. The University of Michigan English Department web site provides a thorough discussion of plagiarism.

University Documents

Official academic forms and records are the property of the College of Engineering and/or the University of Michigan. Tampering, alteration, or other misuse of these documents is a violation of the Honor Code, as is submitting falsified or altered documents.

Course Registration

The University Registrar's Office provides students with a registration date in accordance with their own policies. Registering for a course, in order to hold a seat for yourself or someone else is a violation of the Honor Code.

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Introduction:

Every course should have a written honor policy describing the nature of allowed and disallowed collaboration within the course. The level of allowed collaboration might differ from one assignment type to another (e.g. no collaboration on exams, but significant collaboration allowed and indeed expected on a design project). Students should be reminded of the allowed collaboration policies throughout the term. To provide students with reinforcement, each assignment might include the relevant honor policy in the handout for every assignment.

Please recall that different courses and different instructors have different expectations; do not assume that some level of collaboration is obviously out-of-bounds, because students might be in some other course where that level of collaboration is allowed.

General Policy Statement: An introductory paragraph for honor policies:

All students in the class are presumed to be decent and honorable, and all students in the class are bound by the College of Engineering Honor Code. You may not seek to gain an unfair advantage over your fellow students; you may not consult, look at, or possess the unpublished work of another without their permission; and you must appropriately acknowledge your use of another's work. Any violation of the honor policies appropriate to each piece of course work will be reported to the Honor Council, and if guilt is established penalties may be imposed by the Honor Council and Faculty Committee on Discipline. Such penalties can include, but are not limited to, letter grade deductions or expulsion from the University. If you have any questions about this course policy, please consult the course instructor.

Policy Statements for Various Circumstances:

Exams:

Each student must complete the exam solely by her or his own efforts. Questions can be asked only of the course instructors. The exam must be completed within the specified time.

Note: Limitations on calculator types, use of notes, books, etc. are also appropriate.

Homework (No collaboration):

All homework assignments are to be completed on your own. You may receive help only from the course instructors. At no time may you receive help from someone who is not a current instructor. You may not consult homework solutions from a previous term or another section of the class.

Homework (Limited collaboration):

You may discuss this homework assignment with your fellow students at the conceptual level, but must complete all calculations and write-up, from scrap to final form, on your own. Verbatim copying of another student's work is forbidden. You may not consult homework solutions from a previous term unless they are made available in a publicly accessible form (no unfair advantage can be sought).

Homework (Extensive collaboration):

You may discuss this homework assignment with your fellow students, and complete the work with other students in the class, including working in a group around a common table and discussing problems as you work on them. You must submit individual work that is not a verbatim copy of any other student's work. Do not forget that even when you work in a group, you are individually responsible for the learning that should accompany homework completion.

Group Project Work (No inter-group collaboration):

All group work is to be completed only within your own group. Your group can receive help only from the course instructors. At no time may you receive help from someone who is not a current instructor. You cannot speak with other groups about the problems, conceptually or otherwise, and you may not at anytime look at, borrow, or possess another group's work.

Group Project Work (Inter-group collaboration allowed):

All group work is to be completed only within your own group. You may receive help from the course instructors and you may consult with members of other groups in the course, but you must complete your group's calculation and project write-up on your own.

Programming Assignments (Individual Projects):

All programming projects in this course are to be done on your own. Any violation will result in initiation of the formal procedures of the Honor Council. We will be using a sophisticated automated program to correlate projects, including those submitted in previous semesters. We do encourage students to help each other learn the course material. You may give or receive help on any of the concepts covered in lecture or discussion and on the specifics of C syntax. You are allowed to consult with other students in the current class to help you understand the project specification (i.e. the problem definition).

However, you may not collaborate in any way when constructing your solution - the solution to the project must be generated by you working alone. You are not allowed to work out the programming details of the problems with anyone or to collaborate to the extent that your programs are identifiably similar. You are not allowed to look at or in any way derive advantage from the existence of project specifications or solutions prepared in prior years (e.g. programs written by former students, solutions provided by instructors, project handouts).

If you have any questions as to what constitutes unacceptable collaboration, please talk to the instructor right away. You are expected to exercise reasonable precautions in protecting your own work. Do not leave your program in a publicly accessible directory, and take care when discarding printouts.

Programming Assignments (Group Projects):

All projects in this course are to be done by your own group. Violation will result in initiation of the formal procedures of the Engineering Honor Council. We use an automated program and manual checks to correlate projects with each other and with prior solutions. At the same time, we encourage students to help each other learn the course material, but there is a limit to the assistance you can give or receive.

You may give or receive help on any of the concepts covered in lecture, discussion, or the textbook, and on the specifics of C/C++ syntax. You are allowed to consult with other students in the class to help you understand the project specification (the definition of the problem). However, you may not collaborate in any way with people outside your group when constructing your solution; your group working alone must generate the solution to a project. You are not allowed to work out the programming details of the problems with anyone outside your own group or to collaborate to the extent that your programs are identifiably similar. You are not allowed to derive your solution in any way from prior project solutions. If you worked on the projects in the past (because you are repeating this course or you started but dropped the class in a prior term), you may not re-use code from the prior semester. If you have any questions as to what constitutes unacceptable collaboration, please talk to the instructor right away. You are expected to exercise reasonable precautions in protecting your own work. Don't let other students borrow your account or computer, don't leave your program in publicly accessible directory, and take care when discarding printouts.

In-class Personal Response System:

During class you will be asked to answer questions using a Personal Response System. You will be told which questions must be answered on your own and which can be answered after discussions with your peers. You may not hold more than one transmitter during PRS questions (i.e. potentially answering for another student), nor may you enter a response for another student in any way.

Being Accused of an Honor Code Violation

If a student is suspected of an Honor Code Violation, the following steps will be taken:

• An Honor Council member will be assigned to investigate the allegations. The investigating member will go over the evidence with the student and ask for an explanation of the incident.
• The Honor Council will invite the student to appear before the Council when it considers all the evidence. At that time, the student will be given written notice of the suspected violation specifying the course involved. The student will be asked to describe actions and motivations relevant to the incident.
• The suspected student has the right to waive the Honor Council hearing and go directly before the Faculty Committee on Discipline.
• The Honor Council will make a recommendation to the Faculty Committee on Discipline. The student will be notified by mail of the recommendation and the reasons for the decision.
• The Faculty Committee on Discipline will review the recommendation made by the Honor Council. The Committee will ask the student to appear for a hearing. The Faculty Committee will render a decision and will notify the student by mail. (The student may appeal the Committee's decision to the Executive Committee of the College.)
• If the violation is reported while the Honor Council is adjourned for the spring and summer, the case will be handled as soon as possible at the start of the fall term.  Alternatively, the case may be brought directly to the Faculty Committee on Discipline until they adjourn for the spring and summer.

Protection of the Suspected Student

A student suspected of a violation will first discuss the matter with a member of the Honor Council assigned to investigate the case. The suspected student will appear before the Honor Council.ⁱ  In this informal procedure, the suspected student deals at first only with other students. This creates an atmosphere where the case can be stated fully without any inhibitions caused by the presence of faculty members or administrators. Although the hearings are confidential, the suspected student may bring a friend or advisor. The College of Engineering maintains records of all Honor Code convictions. However, all Honor Council and Faculty Committee on Discipline records are strictly confidential and do not go into the student's regular file.

What happens when I see the Honor Council

Each student who is accused of an Honor Code violation has the right to an Honor Council hearing, or forgoⁱ that hearing if they so wish. It is the intent of the Honor Council to take a fair and unbiased approach when hearing cases.

If you are accused of a violation, the investigator assigned to your case will meet with you to ask questions. The role of the investigator is to gain a broad picture of the situation. The investigator will answer any questions you have regarding the violation. The investigator may meet with the accuserⁱⁱ, and anyone else involved. When the investigation is complete, the investigator will schedule an Honor Council hearing. If you choose not to be present for the hearing, the case will be heard without you. Hearings generally take 20 minutes to a half hour, however, they can take longer.

During the hearing, you will be asked to state your side of the story to the council. The council members will then have the chance to ask any questions they may have so that they can have all the facts necessary to make a decision.

In most cases, the council will make a decision the same evening. First, the council will decide whether there is enough evidence to find you guilty of the stated violation. If you are found not-guilty, the process will end. If you are found guilty, the council will decide on an appropriate sanction.

The decisionsⁱⁱⁱ made by the Honor Council are passed to the Faculty Committee on Discipline (FCD) as recommendations. An FCD hearing will be scheduled within the week.

Tips for the accused:

• Be honest and forthcoming
• It is important that the investigator and the council have all the facts of the case. It is in your best interest to tell the truth, and tell the truth early. Tell your investigator anything that you may think is important.
• You are allowed to bring someone to the hearing for emotional support. This person will not be allowed to talk.

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ⁱ If the student wishes to forgo the Honor Council hearing, a Faculty Committee on Discipline hearing will be arranged.
ⁱⁱ Normally, the "accuser" is the professor, if the alleged violation occurred in a class.
ⁱⁱⁱ If the accused is found not-guilty, this stage in the process won't occur.

The FCD, or Faculty Committee on Discipline, is made up of several Engineering Faculty members, representing a range of departments. After a case is heard by the Honor Council, the case is then heard by the FCD. Each FCD hearing consists of 3 FCD members and the Honor Council member who was assigned to investigate the case. The accused student(s) are asked to come in and tell their side of the story, and answer questions. The FCD will then make the final and binding decision. The accused student(s) will have the option to appeal the case to the Executive Committee of the college.

The Faculty Committee on Discipline

1. Write a memo including what violation you suspect, why you suspect it, and what students are involved.
2. Send a copy of this memo, along with copies of all evidence to the Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, c/o Kathleen Vargo, Office of Student Affairs, 145C Chrysler Center 2092, 647-7117, kmvargo@umich.edu.
3. An investigator from the Honor Council will contact you soon after the case is submitted. Since Honor Council procedures are kept confidential, accusers are encouraged to refrain from discussing the case with anyone not directly involved. Students should receive an incomplete (I) in a class where an Honor Council procedure has not been completed.

If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact us at enghonor@umich.edu.

 

Current Members

Name: David Hanley Position: President Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact:  hanley@umich.edu

Name: Andrea Bartoszewicz Position: Vice President Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact:  amayb@umich.edu

Name: Anthony Bainor Position: Administrator Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact: bainsaj@umich.edu

Name: Brian Hicks Position: Treasurer Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact: bthicks@umich.edu

Name: Kyle Barriger Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2006 Contact: kguay@umich.edu

Name: Scott Bartkowiak Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2005 Contact: smbart@umich.edu

Name: Sohum Bhatt Position: Full Member Member Since: Winter, 2009 Contact: sohum@umich.edu

Name: Mallory Brown Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact: malbrown@umich.edu

Name: Claire Cook Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact: cookce@umich.edu

Name: Zachary Fieroh Position: Full Member Member Since: Winter, 2009 Contact: zfieroh@umich.edu

Name: Navneet Gill Position: Full Member Member Since: Winter, 2009 Contact: navgill@umich.edu

Name: Tyler Krone Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2006 Contact: tkrone@umich.edu

Name: Marcial Lapp Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2005 Contact:  mlapp@umich.edu

Name: Sarah Mynhier Position: Full Member Member Since: Winter, 2009 Contact: mynhier@umich.edu

Name: Jennifer Perchonok Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact: jeperch@umich.edu

Name: Hanni Saab Position: Full Member Member Since: Fall, 2007 Contact: hannisa@umich.edu

The Honor Council serves as a link between the Engineering Honor Code and the students of the College. The council's main purpose is to educate the students about ethical thinking and decision making. Members of the Honor Council visit classes every year to answer questions about the Honor Code and acquaint students with its ideals. The council also investigates alleged violations of the Honor Code and recommends action to the Faculty Committee on Discipline.

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