At Colorado College, the Honor Code and Honor Council make up the Honor System. The Honor Code is built around the pillars of integrity, honesty, and fairness. All students who enroll at the college agree to act by and be held responsible for knowing the Honor Code. The Honor Council is a student-run organization that acts as a mediating body between professors, reporting parties, and accused students in suspected violations of the Honor Code. The Honor Council is also responsible for educating the campus community on the everyday functions and benefits of the Honor System as well as supporting faculty in their attempts to create class environments that promote honesty, integrity, and fairness.

The Honor System plays an integral role in forming and maintaining the academic culture at CC by discouraging cheating and having a system in place for investigating instances of cheating. However, the foundation of this system is mutual trust and respect between faculty and students.

Along with allowing for more comfortable and productive working relationships between students and faculty, the Honor System directly aligns with key CC’s core values. CC students learn much more than the curriculum listed on their syllabi; we learn to merge critical and creative thinking, to lead compassionately, and to take ownership for our education and contributions to the broader community. The lessons learned beyond the words in a textbook are rooted in the community and the culture which enrich the CC experience. The Honor System is undeniably woven into this culture.

While the Honor Council’s most visible role on campus is our work investigating Honor Code violations, we believe we contribute much more to the campus. The Honor System is the result of a collective campus community, with members who respect each other and subsequently trust one another’s work. For more information on the role of the CC Honor Council in the campus community, please visit our website and read our Letter to Faculty (linked to PDF sent in email on 3/22).

The Colorado College Honor Council is conducting a comprehensive review of academic literature pertaining to honor codes, honor councils, and academic integrity on higher education campuses during the Spring 2021 semester. We intend to populate this page with a literature review, overview infographic, and PDFs of the most pertinent pieces we find over the summer term. For an update on the status of this review or if you have any pieces of research you would like us to include in our survey, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at honorcouncil@coloradocollege.edu!

The Honor Council engages with the student body at all points in their academic careers; we educate them about the resources on campus which can help them succeed in their courses and remind them about what their commitment to the Honor System means.

At any time, students can contact the Honor Council with questions or can visit the Honor Council website’s Student Guide and and the Counseling Center.

Honor Council members present to all first-year students during the first-year program courses in order to personally welcome them to the Honor System and explain how it functions on our campus. The presentation below was given during the 2020-2021 academic year and the attached document is the handout all first-years were given after this presentation.

• FYP Presentation
• FYP Handout

During Honor Council investigations, two investigators are assigned to each student involved in a potential violation. These investigators help the student navigate the investigation process and inform students of the confidential and non-confidential resources available to support them. Two resources students under investigation often find helpful are the Wellness Resource Center and the Counseling Center.

The Honor Council understands that faculty play a critical role in maintaining the Honor System. We strive to educate faculty on the functioning of the Honor Council and our violation investigation process through a partnership with the Crown Faculty Center and the Faculty Guide page on our website. Additionally, as the learning environment continues to change, we provide suggestions on how faculty can tailor their courses to support students in the pursuit of honesty, integrity, and fairness.

1. On-boarding presentation: The Honor Council provides information for new and visiting faculty during their On-Boarding processes through a collaboration with the Crown Faculty Center.
2. Demographic annual report: During the 2020-2021 school year, the Honor Council began utilizing a confidential database system to record all case information. In an effort to maintain transparency and critically analyze the potential violations brought to the Council, annual reports on the Demographic information for all accused students will be generated and available to the campus community.
3. Faculty Reference Sheet for Distance Learning: In response to the drastic shift from in-person to online learning, the Honor Council worked with faculty and students to generate the Faculty Reference Sheet for Distance Learning. This document outlines a series of recommendations professors can adopt to encourage academic honesty in the virtual learning environment.