Honor Code

An Honor Code establishes a fundamental social contract within which the University community agrees to live. This contract relies on the conviction that the personal and academic integrity of each individual member strengthens and improves the quality of life for the entire community. The Honor Code is vital to the Building Community Campaign, which is striving to develop a welcoming and supportive climate in which all people are respected and free to express differing ideals and opinions. A sense of mutual trust is critical to achieving such a community.

Purpose of the Policy

The purpose of an Honor Code at the University of Colorado at ÌÇÐÄVlogÆƽâ°æ is to secure an environment where academic integrity, and the resulting behavior, can flourish. The Honor Code recognizes the importance of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility and wishes these principles to be a defining part of the CU-ÌÇÐÄVlogÆƽâ°æ campus. The Honor Code allows all students to have responsibility for, and the ability to attain, appropriate recognition for their academic and personal achievements. A student-run Honor Code is necessary because research indicates that institutions with a student-run Honor Code are highly successful in alleviating indiscretions and promoting an academically honorable community. In addressing any proven student violations regarding the Honor Code, the student leadership of the Honor Code Council applies only non-academic sanctions, and the faculty applies academic sanctions.

The College of Engineering and Applied Science values and fosters an environment of academic and personal integrity, supporting the ethical standards of the engineering profession, where we design and build for the benefit and safety of society and our environment.

Policy

The Constitution and By-Laws of the Honor Code are available on the Honor Code website.

What is a Violation?

Academically dishonest behaviors include, but are not limited to, the brief examples described below. If you're concerned about what constitutes academic dishonesty we encourage you to speak with your professor or if you do not feel comfortable doing so please contact the honor code office at honor@colorado.edu.

  • Plagiarism: Portrayal of another’s work or ideas as one’s own.
  • Buying a paper off the internet and turning it in as if it were your own work
  • Improperly citing references on a works cited page or within the text of a paper
  • Cheating: Using unauthorized notes or study aides, allowing another party to do one’s work/exam as one’s own, or submitting the same or similar work in more than one course without permission from the course instructors.
  • Taking an exam for another person
  • Looking at another person’s exam for answers
  • Bringing and using unauthorized notes during an exam
  • Fabrication: Falsification or creation of data, research or resources, or altering a graded work without the prior consent of the course instructor.
  • Making up a reference for a works cited page
  • Making up statistics or facts for academic work
  • Aid of Academic Dishonesty: Intentionally facilitating plagiarism, cheating, or fabrication
  • Helping another person do a take home exam
  • Giving answers to an exam
  • Collaborating with others on work that is supposed to be completed independently
  • Lying: Deliberate falsification with the intent to deceive in written or in verbal form as it applies to an academic submission.
  • Bribery: Providing, offering, or taking rewards in exchange for a grade, an assignment or the aid of academic dishonesty.
  • Paying a student to do work on your behalf
  • Attempting to pay a teacher to change a grade
  • Threat: An attempt to intimidate a student, staff, or faculty member for the purpose of receiving an unearned grade or in an effort to prevent the reporting of an Honor Code violation.