now if we could just come up with an honor code for administration we would really be world class.

Reporter wrote:

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USM works on first honor code

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An honor code will not work at USM. Honor codes are built over time and are based on traditiion. Traditions are developed, not invented. An honor code is not like a box of instant grits. Students at schools with an honor code enforce those code with a passion.

Invictus wrote:

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Nice try but no cigar. Honor codes are no more a matter of "insitutional tradition" than the content of a freshman biology syllabus.

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Sorry, Invictus, but I speak from experience. You'd have to be there to believe it. I've been there. You must be talking about an honor system in name only.

Each college within the university developing its own honor code is not only stupid it is silly. Such a practice would surely confuse the non- majors taking their courses. An honors code should be consistent across the entire university. My guess is that business developed its own honor code for the sole purpose of partially satisfying some accreditation committee that says ethics must be incorporated into the business curriculum.

Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe wrote:

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Each college within the university developing its own honor code is not only stupid it is silly. Such a practice would surely confuse the non- majors taking their courses. An honors code should be consistent across the entire university. My guess is that business developed its own honor code for the sole purpose of partially satisfying some accreditation committee that says ethics must be incorporated into the business curriculum.

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You got it, D, C, & H.  What happens if a student outside of business is suspected of cheating? Is a theatre major who takes a business course tried by COB's honor court? Can each college at USM set up its own unique system of justice? Shades of Aruba.

Doesn't the CoB have an "Academic Integrity Policy" that is different from an "Honor Code"?  I went to a private liberal arts college with a true Honor Code.  It was, as one of the posters noted above, an integral part of the culture and history of the college I attended.  I can't imagine a real honor code being suddenly adopted at a state university like USM and having it be successful.  A tradition can't be created overnight.  In response to some of the cynics above who did not attend an institution with an honor code, students took it very seriously and there was also pride associated with being part of it and making it work.

Warden wrote:

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Their Academic Integrity Policy specifies a faculty responsibility of "Ensuring that examinations are properly proctored."

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So the COB policy requires that its faculty ensures that examinations are properly proctored. How will they do that with their online MBA program without violating that part of their academic integrity policy? Maybe they'll hiire someody on site to sit beside the student's computer and watch over their shoulder. I'll bet that component of their "Academic Integrity" policy goes down the tubes pretty fast.

Whistling in the wind wrote:

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So the COB policy requires that its faculty ensures that examinations are properly proctored. How will they do that with their online MBA program without violating that part of their academic integrity policy? Maybe they'll hiire someody on site to sit beside the student's computer and watch over their shoulder. I'll bet that component of their "Academic Integrity" policy goes down the tubes pretty fast.

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The Mississippi Virtual Community College, favorite whipping boy of this board, now requires at least one proctored exam in every online course, regardless of the subject matter. In that system, a proctored exam must be taken under controlled conditions at an approved testing center. Each community college has at least one such center. Students who cannot travel to a Mississippi community college testing center may propose alternative testing sites, subject to approval by the instructor and his/her Distance Learning Coordinator. Locations that are generally okay include public libraries, universities, military base education offices & K-12 schools. The proctors receive specific instructions for monitoring the exams, which are password protected & may be set to prevent printing, local saving of copies, etc.

You'll need to find a better argument that this against the online MBA program.

Blurry Moment wrote:

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We got Nitchampburg. We got The Rock.   

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Blurry Moment, your tongue-in-cheek post listing some USM instant traditions missed the "Eagle Walk" which was stolen from Ole Miss' walk through The Grove which has been around for many decades. The USM band "The Pride of Mississippi " was a take off on "The Pride of the South" of Ole Miss. Ditto the new usage of "Southern Miss." If USM folks dislike Ole Miss, they sure have a strange way of showing it. At this rate we'll be seeing "Colonel Eagle" at our football games pretty soon.

Breaking Wind wrote:

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 Perhaps you should talk with distance learning experts before you attempt to explain what will and will not work. 

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I prefer to talk with academic experts.

Breeze wrote:

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Don't let Breaking Wind rattle you, Whistling in the Wind. Breaking Wind is just blowing smoke. Yes they do have the proctoring contacts Breaking Wind mentioned, but some courses are offered without proctored exams whatsoever. Many online courses at USM are offered with no proctored exams and no check on who is actually taking online tests.

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If what you are saying is true, then you have identified a problem with faculty members not meeting their academic responsibility -- they are not doing the job they are paid to do.  And these would be the same academic experts Whistling in the Wind listens to?  And these are also the same "professionals" who say we cannot constrain how they teach classes without violating academic freedom?  Seems to me like the "administrators" have developed a system to protect academic quality but that some faculty members refuse to do the extra work necessary for such protection.  What in interesting twist!

 

Wow, you're being generous.  Some might argue that you could have ended your post 11 words sooner!

anon wrote:

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 Seems to me that most "administrators" don't know diddly squat about academic quality in disciplines outside their own area of expertise.

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This reminds me of the old Sun Records rockabilly hit that went "My girl is red hot, your girl ain't doodly squat."

astonished wrote:

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The university code does not supercede any existing code.  

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A university code should supercede any existing college code if the standards of the university code exceed the existing local college code.