1. What is the University of Maryland Honor Pledge?

The Honor Pledge is a statement undergraduate and graduate students should be asked to write by hand and sign on examinations, papers, or other academic assignments not specifically exempted by the instructor. The Pledge reads:

I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment/examination.

 The Pledge was adopted by the University Senate on April 9, 2001, and approved by the President on May 10, 2001. Full implementation is effective throughout the University on the first day of the Spring 2002 semester.

 

2. What are the origins of the Pledge?

The University of Maryland Honor Pledge was initiated by students. Hundreds of students signed a campus-wide version of the Pledge before it was officially adopted by the University Senate. The Pledge language approved by the Senate was jointly sponsored by the Student Honor Council and the President's Student Advisory Council. It  was also endorsed by majority vote of the Student Government Association.

3. What other colleges and universities use honor pledges?

Students sign honor pledges on academic assignments at many leading universities, including Princeton University, The University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, Wesleyan University, Vanderbilt University, Rice University, Oberlin College, and the University of Michigan (College of Engineering), among others. Students also sign matriculation honor pledges at institutions such as Duke University, Georgetown University, and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

4. What is the Maryland Honor Pledge designed to accomplish?

The Honor Pledge is a community building ritual, designed to encourage teachers and students to reflect upon the University’s core institutional value of academic integrity. Professors who invite students to sign the Honor Pledge signify that there is an ethical component to teaching and learning. Students who write by hand and sign the Pledge affirm a sense of pride in the integrity of their work.

5. Do honor pledges suggest students cannot be trusted?

 No. student leaders at Maryland would not have developed the Pledge if it had that connotation. People who enter a profession or assume public office often sign an oath or affirmation. Likewise, Maryland students endorsed the Honor Pledge because they feel a growing sense of pride in the quality of the University. For them, the Pledge reflects their public statement of support for academic excellence, including the highest standards for academic integrity.

6. Is there any evidence pledges or public affirmations make a difference in attitudes or

behavior?

 

National research shows that schools with traditional honor codes–including pledge

requirements–have significantly lower rates of academic dishonesty than schools without

honor codes. See “Some Good News About Academic Integrity” in the September/October

2000 issue of Change Magazine. 

 

In reviewing the honor pledge concept, the University Senate Committee on Student Conduct

also found that pledges generate strong support from graduates of honor code schools.

Princeton graduate Don McCabe (Professor of Management at Rutgers University, and

founder of the National Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University) wrote the

Committee that:

 

I am very partial to pledges. I would suggest that a significant majority of honor code

school alumni. . . can still recite the honor pledge even though it's been 30- to-50 years

or more since they last signed it.  It was a very meaningful part of the [honor] code

tradition.

 This perspective has been consistently echoed by University of Maryland faculty members who are graduates of honor code schools. 

 

7.  How can an honor pledge deter someone who has already decided to engage in academic dishonesty?

 

Honor pledges aren’t likely to deter determined cheaters. Most students, however, do not fall

into that category. They cheat because they developed the habit of cheating in high school,

or because they think "everyone does it" in college. One of the values of an honor pledge is

regular reiteration of a campus-wide commitment to academic integrity. Writing and signing

an honor pledge–and seeing other students do the same–sends the powerful message that

academic dishonesty is not considered acceptable behavior among students, and that

promoting academic integrity is a responsibility students share with faculty members.   

8. Why are students asked to write the Pledge by hand, as well as to sign it?

The purpose of asking students to write the Pledge by hand is to promote a  period of serious reflection at the end of an academic exercise. The few moments required to write the pledge by hand reminds students that the paper or examination they are submitting is governed by the ethical rules of a scholarly community.

 

9. Are honor pledges burdensome to administer?

Administration of honor pledges is not unduly burdensome, as evidenced by long-standing faculty support for honor pledges at many sister institutions. The wording of the Pledge (with appropriate space to write and sign) is being printed on all University examination booklets and electronic grading forms.

Faculty members simply need to explain the pledge requirement on the first day of class, and remind students to write by hand and sign the pledge when submitting examinations and papers. Experience elsewhere and at Maryland indicates that very few students will neglect to write or sign the pledge. Those who do should be given an opportunity to comply. Voluntary participation should be widespread once the pledge becomes an established custom.   

10. What if a student refuses to write or sign the pledge?

The Maryland Honor Pledge was reviewed by legal counsel, and is carefully crafted to respect the autonomy of individuals who might object to a pledge requirement on religious or ideological grounds. The University Senate resolution on the Honor Pledge states that "[s]igning or non-signing of the Pledge will not be considered in grading or judicial procedures."

If a handwritten Honor Pledge and Pledge signature do not appear on a paper or examination, faculty members  should ask the student for an explanation. Doing so has the added value of encouraging teachers and students to discuss the importance of academic integrity, and the best ways to promote it. Students remain free to decline to write or sign the Pledge, and should not be penalized for exercising that right. Students should be reminded, however, that they are  subject to the requirements of the Code of Academic Integrity, whether or not they write and sign the Honor Pledge.