SGA begins group to tout ethics on campus
Integrity Council to draft honor statement
By Jessica Sanders
Staff Reporter

Members of the new Integrity Council formed by the Student Government Association intend to increase ethics on campus and eventually draft an honor code, said Shelley Story, Campus Life coordinator.

“The code is something that may come somewhere down the line, but the goal of the council is to increase awareness about cheating,” said Story, Integrity Council advisor. “My hope for this council is that (it is) going to be a group of students, faculty and staff who are willing to say to the rest of the community that this behavior is not appropriate.”

The first action will be to draft an honor statement to present to the new freshman class, SGA President Brad Thompson said.

The honor statement will explain what it means to have honor and integrity and will be signed by the new freshman class, said Thompson, a junior radio-TV-film major.

Thompson said a draft of the honor code could be finished by December. He said he hopes the honor statement will be finished by May.

Students have mixed opinions on the effectiveness of an honor code.
Becky Saltzman, a junior nursing major, said integrity is a problem on campus but an honor code may not be the solution.

“If they already lack the integrity not to cheat, they are not going to mind lying on an honor statement,” Saltzman said.

However, Josiah McLeod, a sophomore economics major, said an honor code would be beneficial.

“I think it would be a good idea to have a system in place that would encourage more ethical behavior and increase awareness,” McLeod said.

Katie Gordon, chairwoman of the Integrity Council, said the honor statement will be effective because it will be created by students.

“An honor code by itself, I don’t think, will do a whole lot,” said Gordon, a senior electrical engineering major. “But forming a group of people on campus who want to promote integrity as a whole is really going to make a difference.”

Gordon said she is looking for ideas by researching honor codes from schools such as Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Naval Academy.

“We are looking for honor codes that work, that have been in place for a long time,” Thompson said. “We are looking for codes that have withstood the test of time.”

The Integrity Council consists of 12 students, five faculty members and five staff members, Gordon said.

Members were chosen from all areas of campus, not just SGA, so that many views would be represented, she said.

“We were looking for a diverse group,” Gordon said. “We have some people who are freshmen and some who are head resident assistants.”
The Integrity Council was originally called the honor code task force, but was renamed to emphasize the focus on integrity, Story said.

“We didn’t want people instantly associating the honor code task force with the honor code,” Story said. “We changed it to Integrity Council because ‘integrity’ makes people stop and think.”

Jessica Sanders
j.d.sanders@tcu.edu

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