The Honor Code

In the spring of 1921, after a seven-year campaign by the student body, the first campus-wide honor system was formally adopted by the University. The Code underwent various changes through the years, most recently in the spring of 1977. Modifications to these and other codes of student conduct are drafted and enacted by the Student Conduct Legislative Council in accordance with the procedures set forth in "The Legislative and Judicial Charter of 1968."

The standard of academic conduct for Stanford students is as follows:

A.     The Honor Code is an undertaking of the students, individually and collectively:

(1)    that they will not give or receive aid in examinations; that they will not give or receive unpermitted aid in classwork, in the preparation of reports, or in any other work that is to be used by the instructor as the basis of grading;

(2)    that they will do their share and take an active part in seeing to it that others as well as themselves uphold the spirit and letter of the Honor Code.

B.     The faculty on its part manifests its confidence in the honor of its students by refraining from proctoring examinations and from taking unusual and unreasonable precautions to prevent the forms of dishonesty mentioned above. The faculty will also avoid, as far as practicable, academic procedures that create temptations to violate the Honor Code.

C.     While the faculty alone has the right and obligation to set academic requirements, the students and faculty will work together to establish optimal conditions for honorable academic work.

Examples of conduct which have been regarded as being in violation of the Honor Code include:

      Copying from another's examination paper or allowing another to copy from one's own paper;
      Unpermitted collaboration;
      Plagiarism;
      Revising and resubmitting a quiz or exam for regrading without the instructor's knowledge and consent;
      Giving or receiving unpermitted aid on a take-home examination;
      Representing as one's own work the work of another; and
      Giving or receiving aid on an academic assignment under circumstances in which a reasonable person should have known that such aid was not permitted.

In recent years, most student disciplinary cases have involved Honor Code violations; of those, the most frequent is plagiarism. The ordinary penalty for a first offense is a one-quarter suspension from the University, 40 hours of community service, and a grade of "No Credit" for the class in which the violation occurred. The ordinary penalty for a multiple violation (e.g. cheating more than once in the same course) is a three-quarter suspension, 40 or more hours of community service, and a grade of "No Credit."