The Continuing Honor Code Trials

Ethan Tran: Fewer take-home papers raise questions about the Honor Code

Brian Shaw has taught in Davidson’s political science department for over 40 years. Famous for his two-page essay prompts, Dr. Shaw has offered only take-home, open-book reviews.

“I've always given take-home reviews. I like take-home reviews. I think students learn more.… when I read and write about a text, I want to look at the pages. I want time to think about it. And I want to give students the same opportunities.”

That tradition ended last year, after Shaw encountered more instances of plagiarism than he had during the “previous two decades.” Instead of take-home reviews, Shaw now ruefully offers only in-class essays in his survey courses.

This trend of professors foregoing take-home exams and papers is not a new phenomenon. As the Davidsonian reported last year, many professors began adopting in-class tests, the Exam Center, and LockDown Browser software. Driven by concerns over cheating and doubts about the Honor Code’s effectiveness, many professors opted for measures designed to prevent misconduct altogether.

Students noticed the shift in faculty confidence. “It was my first class of freshman fall,” recalled Riley Light ’28. “And one of the first things [my professor] told us was that the honor code is dead.”

Former Honor Council Solicitor Daniel Presa ’25 offered a different view. Between Winter Break and the end of Spring 2025 semester alone, he handled what he estimated to be around 40 cases. While that marked an increase, Presa attributed it not to more cheating but to “professors being more willing to report cases because of increased trust.”

By meeting more often with faculty and openly explaining the rationale behind case outcomes, Presa said, the Honor Council increased transparency about its procedures and strengthened faculty trust.

However, Presa admitted that many professors remain skeptical, bypassing the Honor Council and handling violations internally. He noted that these professors tended to see the Council as either “too heavy-handed” or “too lenient” in its outcomes.

Addressing the latter opinion, Presa argued that the Honor Council is “built on the restorative justice principle,” with the primary goal of “restoration into the community” rather than punishment. As a result, Presa explained, the Council no longer begins by “advocat[ing] for suspension or expulsion” with the hope that the student can “re-enter the community in an accountable way.”

Christopher Marsicano ’10, a current professor and former Honor Council Representative, agreed with Presa that restorative justice is important but disagreed with his hesitation to use suspensions. He argued that time away from campus can “actually be incredibly restorative.”

Drawing on his experience on the Honor Council, Marsicano noticed that most students appear before the Council “because something has gone horribly wrong in their life.” Family emergency or mental health struggles, he said, often pushed students “behind on work” and into cheating. For Marsicano, suspension is not punishment but a chance for reform. “It can be incredibly centering and reflective so that they can come back to college and thrive where in six months prior they were just barely surviving.”

Debates over sanctions have broadened into a larger question: whether the Honor Code and the Council that enforces it still carry the trust of the community. Honor Council Chair Maggie Woodward ’26 acknowledged the doubts but insisted they reflect “a misunderstanding of what the Council does.” She emphasized the current leadership has focused on transparency by creating a committee to review internal practices and expanding outreach to students and faculty so that neither the Code nor the Council remain a “black box.”

For Marsicano, more data is essential. He highlighted the lack of publicly available statistics on Honor Council sanctions and cautioned that much of the debate relies on “vibes and anecdotal information.” With a forthcoming campus-wide survey of students and faculty—focused on attitudes toward the Honor Code—Marsicano hopes the Davidson community will gain a clearer understanding of the Honor Code and engage with it more actively.