I have a couple of corrections to make to the otherwise excellent Chronicle article on the results of our 2005 academic integrity surveys ("Self-reports of cheating drop in '05," Oct. 4).
First, Duke does not lag behind the other code schools sampled in all the areas surveyed: in the case of "plagiarism" we are actually doing slightly better than the code school average (a result that is even more impressive when we realize that of the 15 code schools surveyed, including Duke, 13 have had honor codes longer, sometimes far longer, than we have).
That we are doing well on this measure compared to both the national sample and our results of five years ago can surely be attributed to the shared efforts by faculty, students, administrators and staff-including but not limited to instructors, librarians, deans, and Honor Council members-to educate about standards of scholarship and the ways to avoid breaching them.
Second, undergraduate students are no longer-as of Fall 2006-required to report cheating by peers: the "obligation to report" has been replaced by the "obligation to act."
As the Fall 2005 surveys highlighted, students are by and large unwilling to turn in other students. The obligation to act, which follows from the Duke Community Standard, requires that students do "something" about cheating and offers a range of possible actions.
This policy, which I trust students will find not only palatable but vital (dare I hope inspiring?), may be found on the Office of Judicial Affairs home page, among other places.
Judith Ruderman
Vice Provost for Academic and Administrative Services, Chair, Academic Integrity Council
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