Ever since UC Davis established its Honor Code 100 years ago, students themselves have been integral in keeping the student body honest.

“It’s something we want to do, not because someone told us to do it,” said Maricar Pascual, a fourth-year economics major who serves as co-chair of the Campus Judicial Board.

She spoke Oct. 25 on the Memorial Union’s south patio, where the Campus Judicial Board handed out 1,000 free cupcakes in celebration of UC Davis’ 100-year history of the Honor Code and its successor, the Code of Academic Conduct.

“It’s all about academic honesty,” Cody Harper said as he walked away with his free cupcake. The third-year student (international relations major and French minor) said he received a Facebook invitation for the event.

“I just showed up for the cupcakes,” he said. “But there’s actually a point. And it’s a great point.”

Indeed, Pascual said she hoped all the students who came by for a cupcake got the message, that integrity in academics is an Aggie tradition. “It’s something we should be proud of,” she said.

Integrity carries on far beyond school, she said: “It makes us good people after Davis.”

'I shall not cheat ...'

The Honor Code came into being in 1911, with the formation of student government four years after the University Farm welcomed its first students. The code stated: “I shall not cheat on, or knowingly give or receive assistance on, examinations, and I shall not condone cheating by any other persons.”

For more than six decades, the Honor Code remained entirely student-run — unique in the UC system. Students took tests without proctors in the room. Sometimes the students took their tests outside.

“The students were responsible for policing themselves,” said Steven Vote, a fourth-year English major and co-chair of the Campus Judicial Board.

He related a story from Student Affairs Vice Chancellor Fred Wood, who heard it from Jeanne Wilson, former director of Student Judicial Affairs, who heard it from her aunt, who witnessed it as an undergraduate in the early 1940s: When students became aware of someone cheating during a test, everyone would tap their pencils on their desks until the offender quit doing whatever they were doing — and usually left the room without completing the test.

In 1976, as a result of UC Davis’ enrollment growth and after much discussion and a vote of the student body, the university replaced the Honor Code with the Code of Academic Conduct — and faculty, staff and students began sharing responsibility for students’ academic integrity.

Still, students remain key to the process, forming the 12-member Campus Judicial Board and joining faculty members on hearing panels. Each panel comprises two students and one faculty member.

Students keep tradition going

“It’s important to us, to keep this tradition going,” Pascual said.

The Campus Judicial Board is attached to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs, which deals with more than 500 academic cases and more than 500 social cases annually. Academic cases, of course, stem from coursework and tests; social cases stem from, say, a theft from the bookstore or the Coffee House.

Besides serving on formal hearing panels, the Campus Judicial Board does outreach throughout the year, spreading the message of academic integrity, through events like the cupcake giveaway and Chill Day, when board members give out snow cones just before spring quarter finals.

In addition, board members give presentations to new TAs, telling them about the Code of Academic Conduct and how most students favor its enforcement.

“We want a fair playing field,” Vote said. “The whole point of going to a university is to do your own work, to make your own creations. You are not participating in the university tradition if you are cheating.”

Vote said students are often grateful following judicial action against them. “They thank us for getting them back on the right track,” he said.

Pascual added: “It’s definitely a learning process for our students. It’s important to be honest, to be fair.”

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Code of Academic Conduct

Student Judicial Affairs

Campus Judicial Board