Honor Council changes penalty structure
Rice’s Honor Council has announced changes to its penalty system: It will base penalties in proportion to the grade weighting of assignments found in violation. Honor Council made the penalty structure changes to bring more consistency to their decisions, according to Honor Council Chair Katie Jensen. Jensen said the new structure will serve as a case’s baseline punishment before consideration of other unique factors.
“Implementing the weight percentages [is] a starting point,” Jensen, a Lovett College junior, said. “It’s to have more transparency and better clarity in how we reach our penalty decisions.”
An email was sent to students from residential college Honor Council representatives explaining the consensus penalty structure. The email described the new system as using increasing penalties for larger assignments, such as a one letter grade reduction for assignments worth under 5 percent of a course and a two letter grade reduction for those worth between 5 and 12 percent.
Jensen said Honor Council decided to make the changes after receiving an influx of cases from computer science classes right before summer break in 2015.
“Council was unable to convene in the summer of 2015 because not enough members were present in Houston to hear cases, so we had to deal with the cases when we came back [in the fall],” Jensen said.
Jensen said the large number of cases made the Council realize the need for consistency in punishment, though she said every case has special factors.
“It is important to remember that every case is different and has different circumstances,” Jensen said.
Honor Council representative and working group member Alex Metcalf worked last semester to gauge student and faculty opinion on the honor system at Rice.
“One common opinion between the faculty and students is that everyone values the honor system,” Metcalf, a Will Rice College junior, said. “Pretty much every single person that came back to us said they valued it.”
Metcalf said he believes the new penalty structure will bring more clarity to Rice as a whole.
“I think it is going to provide more information for people, so students and faculty members who really want to understand what actually goes on in the honor system have a better place to start,” Metcalf said.
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