Survey is first step in dialogue with faculty, students, and TFs

The deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), and Harvard College emailed faculty, students, and teaching fellows today (Jan. 31) to ask for their participation in an assessment of academic conduct at Harvard. FAS Dean Michael D. Smith, the John H. Finley, Jr. Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, wrote that the survey will help officials better understand the impact of technology on student behavior and scholarship.

“We are, and always have been, deeply committed to maintaining a culture of integrity in all that we do,” Smith wrote. “Over time, we have established norms which govern our behavior as scholars, and by which we evaluate the behavior of our students. Advances in information technologies, especially over the last decade, have meaningfully changed the way our students seek and share information. We undertake this review to understand what these advances mean for the norms of our community, acknowledging both the need to change appropriately with the times and to maintain our ethos of honest inquiry."

The assessment will launch on Feb. 7, when faculty, students, and teaching fellows receive an email from Dr. Donald McCabe, Director of the Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson University, with a link to the online survey. The assessment should take about 10 minutes to complete and will be held open for three weeks after launch. Faculty, students, and teaching fellows may complete the survey at any point during that time.

Jay M. Harris, dean of undergraduate education and Harvard College Professor and Harry Austryn Wolfson Professor of Jewish Studies, stresses that participants in the survey will remain anonymous.

“We chose to partner with the Center for Academic Integrity because of their outstanding track record at many colleges and universities, including some of Harvard’s peer institutions,” he says. “No log-in information will be required of participants. Comments and data will be stripped of all identifiers in order to preserve confidentiality. It’s critical that members of the FAS academic community feel free to be completely honest about how they behave and what they think when it comes to academic conduct.”

College officials said that the assessment is part of a process that began in 2010, when the FAS revised penalties for academic dishonesty and clarified the policy on student collaboration. After the survey closes, the Center for Academic Integrity will compile and analyze responses and provide FAS officials with a picture of attitudes and behaviors at Harvard. Results will be released to the FAS community in the spring, with discussions to follow in the fall.

In her letter to undergraduates, Dean Evelynn M. Hammonds, Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science, and Professor of African and African American Studies, expressed enthusiasm for the conversations that the survey results will inspire.

“We very much look forward to the discussion that the assessment will foster and will be working with the Harvard College community in the coming months to continue the dialogue,” she wrote.