“I haven’t really noticed it 
because I’m always focused on 
my things.”
Cases of Engineering Honor 
Code violation are referred to 
the Engineering Honor Council, 
a group of 20 student volunteers 
who 
oversee 
Honor 
Code 
management and investigate all 
cases of violations. 
“(The 
Engineering 
Honor 
Council) really do serve as 
that 
peer-to-peer 
voice 
of 
accountability,” Sprague said. 
“They also serve as a great voice 
of advocacy, so when (students) 
see something that may raise 
concerns, they have a great 
student 
body 
representative 
force that can go and be 
advocates for those students 
going through a process.”
According to Sprague, 891 
violations 
were 
investigated 
under 
the 
Engineering 
Honor Code during the 2018-
2019 
academic 
year. 
The 
number 
of 
violations 
have 
increased over time because 
College of Engineering began 
implementing 
the 
Measure 

of Software Similarity cheat 
detection system about five 
years ago, Sprague said.
“Some students were caught 
off guard at the level of detail 
that the cheat detection system 
was able to capture,” Sprague 
said. “Any piece of work that 
(students) 
turned 
into 
the 
College of Engineering has 
real a real potential of being 
run through MOSS, this cheat 
detection system. It’s going 
to be compared against not 
only the work of everyone 
in their class, but all work 
that’s been uploaded in that 
system for the past five years, 
as well as resources that have 
been uploaded up from online 
resources.”
Now that more students 
are being made aware of how 
precise the cheat detection 
system can be, Sprague said 
they have seen the number of 
violations drop dramatically. 
During the Fall 2019 semester, 
Sprague estimated his team has 
received under 100 violations.
Horvitz 
said 
she 
thinks 
the Honor Code is a great 
component to the College of 
Engineering and shows a level 
of trust for students. However, 

she 
thinks 
improvements 
should be made to the system 
for 
violation 
investigations 
to ensure the process is more 
up-to-date and runs smoothly.
At the beginning of the 
semester, Horvitz said she 
sent a message in a group chat 
for environmental engineers 
asking if anyone had completed 
a homework problem. Horvitz 
said a person in the group chat 
sent back a photo of his work, 
and 
the 
conversation 
was 
reported by another individual 
in the group chat.
Horvitz said she received 
an email from the College of 
Engineering before Fall Break 
about her case, saying it may 
take four to eight months to 
resolve. Though the incident 
occurred before Fall Break in 
2019, Horvitz said her case 
has not been investigated yet 
due to the backlog of cases, 
even though she was told by an 
advisor that her case would be 
found innocent.
“I have to wait an entire 
semester 
to 
be 
seen 
for 
something I’m already deemed 
innocent for, although I don’t 
have that official innocence,” 
Horvitz said. “I should be 
deemed 
innocent, 
our 
work looks nothing alike 
and I didn’t solicit the 
work. The advisor himself 
said, ‘You look to be 
innocent, your case should 
probably 
be 
wrapped 
up 
once 
you 
actually 
get 
investigated 
quite 
quickly.’ The only problem 
is I have to hold this over 
my shoulder for four to 
eight months.”
Horvitz said she has 
had other friends in the 
College 
of 
Engineering 
who have been indicted by 
the Honor Code unfairly. 
She suggested the College 
of Engineering consider 
making 
updates 
to 
its 
system to make the process 
move more quickly, such 
as establishing a vetting 
process 
for 
cases 
and 
creating a separate team 
to investigate Computer 
Science 
classes 
since 
they generate the most 
violations.
“Given the fact that 
the policies are so many 
decades old and are not 

equipped to handle any of the 
current 
circumstances 
and 
I think their flexibility for 
other people to innocently get 
harmed means they need an 
update,” Horvitz said. “Their 
intent is nice, but their outcome 
isn’t.”
Sprague said the majority 
of honor code violations come 
from coding assignments. He 
said the College of Engineering 
is currently working on ways to 
improve the process of Honor 
Code violation investigations.
To resolve cases in a more 
timely fashion, Sprague said his 
team began offering the option 
for an expedited investigation 
process 
in 
March 
2019. 
Compared to the traditional 
process, the expedited process 
takes 
approximately 
three 
weeks to resolve.
“Essentially, students have 
the opportunity to come in and 
then admit responsibility for 
an alleged violation,” Sprague 
said. “They can also identify 
folks that are potentially not 
responsible, so their cases can 
be dismissed, and we try to 
get those wrapped up and as 
quickly as possible.”
In addition to the expedited 
process, Sprague said his team 
employed an intern during 
the summer who investigated 
cases to help the process move 
at a faster pace and to catch up 
with backlogged cases.
“We’re dangerously close to 
being fully caught up,” Sprague 
said. “We have started the final 
assignments of investigations 
from the Winter 2019 semester, 
and we are actively completing 
expedited processes for cases 
that have been submitted as 
recently as a week ago from 
this Fall 19.”
As an LSA student, Li said 
the only difference he has 
seen between the two schools 
is how they handle cases 
of 
academic 
dishonesty 
— 
while 
Engineering 
students 
are 
referred 
first 
to 
the 
Engineering Honor Council, 
LSA 
students 
are 
directly 
referred to a dean.
“It doesn’t affect me any 
differently than LSA, where 
there is no honor code and 
you get referred to a dean 
(for cheating),” Li said. “I 
feel like there’s not much of a 
difference.”

2 — Tuesday, December 10, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

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