Honor Code

The Honor Code

The Honor System forms a bond of trust among students, faculty, and administrators. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill operates under a system of self-governance, as students are responsible for governing themselves. As such, our University has been transformed into a powerful community of inquiry and learning. The Honor Code embodies the ideals of academic honesty, integrity, and responsible citizenship and governs the performance of all academic work a student conducts at the University. Acceptance of an offer of admission to Carolina presupposes a commitment to the principles embodied in our century-old tradition of honor and integrity. 

Faculty and Students' Mutual Responsibilities 

Academic work is a joint enterprise involving faculty and students. Both faculty and students have a fundamental investment in the enterprise and must share responsibility for ensuring its integrity. The Faculty Council has formally adopted specific responsibilities that parallel those of the students concerning the Honor Code. 

Faculty Responsibilities 

  1. Awareness: To communicate University-wide expectations about academic integrity, to make sure students understand those expectations, and to hold students accountable for behaving in a way that is consistent with those expectations. 
  2. Communicating Expectations and Administering Examinations: Faculty members, teaching assistants, and other instructional personnel should do the following to help students comply with their responsibilities relating to academic integrity:  
  • Use good judgment in setting and communicating clear ground rules for academic work conducted under their supervision. 
  • Require students to sign the honor pledge as a condition of submitting academic assignments. 
  • Take steps o prevent unauthorized access to examinations during development, duplication, and administration. 
  • Avoid reusing prior examinations in whole or in part to the extent possible.
  • Take all reasonable steps consistent with physical classroom conditions to reduce the risk of cheating during the administration of examinations. 
  • Maintain proper security during the administration of examinations, including, as appropriate, overseeing the distribution and collection of examinations and proctoring the examination session.  

3. Oversight: Faculty members, teaching assistants, and other instructional personnel should do the following in cases of student misconduct that appear to violate the Honor Code:  

  • Tell the appropriate student attorney general if the instructor reasonably believes that a student under their supervision has committed academic dishonesty or significantly helped another student to do so in an academic context. 
  • At the instructor's discretion, tell the student about the intention to report the suspected academic dishonesty and allow the student to present additional relevant information. 
  • The instructor should not punish a student on their own if they suspect the student has broken the Honor Code. The instructor should report the behavior instead. 
  • Work with Honor System representatives by helping with investigations, giving testimony or evidence, suggesting suitable sanctions, and helping resolve the matter quickly. 

4. Involvement: Faculty, teaching assistants, and teaching staff should do the following to emphasize the importance of academic integrity and promote a University-wide culture of commitment to the intellectual and personal values related to academic integrity: 

  • Explore issues of integrity in connection with instructional activities where relevant and appropriate.
  • Encourage their academic units to take matters of academic integrity seriously, become informed regarding related problems and advisable means of preventing problems from arising, and provide requisite training and support to instructional personnel.
  • Participate upon request as part of educational initiatives, faculty advisory panels, and University Hearing Boards designed to create, nurture, and enforce high standards of academic integrity within the University community.

Student Responsibilities

To ensure the effective functioning of an honor system worthy of respect in this institution, students are expected to:

  • Conduct all academic work within the letter and spirit of the Honor Code, which prohibits giving or receiving unauthorized aid in all academic processes.
  • Consult with faculty and other sources to clarify the meaning of plagiarism, to learn the recognized techniques of proper attribution of sources used in the preparation of written work, and to identify allowable resource materials or aids to be used during examination or in completion of any graded work.
  • Sign a pledge on all graded academic work certifying that no unauthorized assistance has been received or given in completing the work.
  • Comply with faculty regulations designed to reduce the possibility of cheating. This may include removing unauthorized materials or aids from the room and protecting one’s examination paper from the view of others.
  • Maintain the confidentiality of examinations by divulging no information concerning an examination, directly or indirectly, to another student yet to write that same examination.
  • Treat all members of the University community with respect and fairness.
  • Report any instance in which reasonable grounds exist to believe that a student has given or received unauthorized aid in graded work or violated the Honor Code in other respects. Students should make such reports to the Office of the Student Attorney General, the Office of the Dean of Students, or other appropriate officer or official of their college or school.
  • Cooperate with the Office of the Student Attorney General and the defense counsel in the investigation and hearing of any incident of alleged violation, including giving testimony when called upon. 

Procedure for Reporting

University community members wishing to report possible violations of the Honor Code should contact the Office of Student Conduct at (919) 962-0805 or complete the online form. The Office of Student Conduct will review the report and refer it to the appropriate Student Attorney General for action.