My Fair Lady

Professor Henry Higgins, who taught Victorian Manners, noticed that one of his students, Eliza Doolittle, had accessed relevant course Powerpoint slides on Moodle during a midterm exam. After Professor Higgins confronted her, Eliza brought herself to Honor Council, which in turn consented to send her case to an academic trial. Before the trial started, Eliza withdrew from Victorian Manners due to health concerns. During the course of the trial, Eliza rarely came to trial meetings. Professor Higgins was uncomfortable with her absence, and with the fact that any grade changes would in essence be meaningless because she was no longer taking his course. The jury found Eliza in violation of the Honor Code and required her to write an essay about the Code and trial goals. After the passage of considerable time, the essay was turned in and reviewed, and the jury consented to separate Eliza for one semester. This case is particularly notable because of its unusual timeline. The case began second semester and was not concluded, and therefore ended up continuing in the summer and following academic year, forcing the chair of the trial to change in the middle of the procedure

Merry and Pippin

[Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry)] and [Peregrin Took (Pippin)] were students in [Professor Arwen's] [Mushroom Hunting 101] class. Professor [Arwen] confronted them when she suspected them of inappropriate collaboration, telling them that their final exams looked suspiciously similar. They told her that they had indeed collaborated, and they agreed to contact Honor Council. Honor Council consented to send the case to an academic trial. Throughout the trial [Merry] and [Pippin] were apologetic and eager to repair the breach of trust with the community, and Professor [Arwen] emphasized that she felt trust was restored between her and the two students. After the jury had written the tentative resolutions, which included a semester of separation, [Merry] and [Pippin] objected to them and presented a list of alternative resolutions that they felt would be more appropriate than separation. This list was discussed at length and the jury ultimately decided to incorporate some of their ideas, removing separation from the resolutions

Scrubs

This case involves JD, a student in Dr. Cox's Pathology 200 class. When Dr. Cox emailed him about a late paper, he replied that he was confused about the deadline, and he hoped to receive an extension. As JD wrote this reply email, he read it aloud to his friend Rowdy while his roommate Turk was also in the room. The following day Turk confronted JD and asked him to bring himself to Honor Council for misleading Dr. Cox by trying to receive an extension and an unfair advantage on the paper. The ensuing trial was delayed because JD waited to bring himself to Council until the summer. In the trial resolutions, the jury asked that JD write a letter to the community and work to repair the breach of trust with Dr. Cox

Avatar: The Last Airbender

When grading [Aang’s] final paper for her [Fire Nation Studies 108] course, [Professor Katara] was suspicious that [Aang], a freshman, had not written the paper himself. In addition to very sophisticated writing, the paper also contained a footnote not linked to any sentence in the text which gave a [mathematical function as an explanation for a bending phenomenon]. After attempting to contact [Aang] by email several times, [Professor Katara] brought the case to Honor Council, who sent the matter to an academic trial. After the fact­finding portion of the trial, the jury came to a statement of non­violation

Frozen

This Academic Trial involved Olaf, a junior in Professor Sven’s class: You Want to Build a Snowman 105. In Olaf’s final paper he included a bibliography but no in­text citations or marked quotations. Parts of the paper had been copied verbatim, and much of the rest was copied with only minor modification. Olaf had never written a paper in the discipline, and had a tense relationship with his professor. The jury came to a statement of violation and resolutions focused primarily on education, including the completion of another research paper and meetings with the Office of Academic Resources

Downton Abbey

[Anna], a Bryn Mawr student enrolled in [Mr. Carson’s] class on [Postwar Estate Management], submitted a problem set in which several lines appeared to come from outside sources. [Mr. Carson] found similar language in an outside academic paper and an outside website, and he brought the matter to Honor Council. Council consented to send the matter to an academic trial. Since [Anna] was unsure about what may or may not constitute plagiarism in a field like [Estate Administration], the trial resolutions focused primarily on education

The Iliad

[Achilles] and [Patroclus] were living together and taking Warfare Strategies 257 together. After accidentally seeing his friend’s test and seeing that an answer was nearly identical to his own, [Achilles] confronted [Patroclus]. [Patroclus] initially denied but later admitted to looking at [Achilles]’s test which had been left out on [Achilles]’s desk. [Achilles] contacted Professor [Nestor] who asked them to contact Honor Council about the case. The jury came to a statement of violation and then tentative resolutions which [Patroclus] accepted. Final resolutions were made to meet the trial goals of education, accountability, and restoration, with emphasis on restoration

Woody and Professor Buzz Lightyear

Woody, a former student in Professor Buzz Lightyear’s class “Potato Head Construction 101,” and an Honor Council Co-Chair at the time, turned himself in to Honor Council for lying about his completion of several graded assignments. Honor Council reviewed the case and sent it to an academic trial. However, due to certain complications regarding the trial’s timing and Woody’s position as Honor Council Co-Chair, the trial proceeded as a modified student panel consisting of six student community jurors and a dean chair. The trial resulted in several resolutions, among which were that both Professor Lightyear and Woody would write letters to the community highlighting their experiences with the trial process, and a controversial recommendation that Woody step down as Honor Council Co-Chair. The trial process and post-trial events are further detailed in the remainder of the abstract

N’Sync

This case involved an incident of plagiarism by Justin Timberlake in Professor JC Chasez’s course, Boy Bands 200. When working on a course assignment, Justin Timberlake accidentally plagiarized from one of the course materials. When this came to Professor Chasez’s attention, there was an initial confrontation between the two parties and the case was brought to Honor Council for full restoration of trust on the community level. While the incident of plagiarism was relatively minor, the case remains important because of the significance plagiarism holds in an academic community. This case also brought forth discussion of plagiarism in light of different cultural norms because of Justin Timberlake’s status as an international student

Back to the Future

At the end of the semester, Marty McFly, a student in Professor Doc’s Time Travel 200 course, submitted a final research paper. When grading the paper, Professor Doc noticed that the paper lacked footnotes and a proper bibliography. He submitted Marty’s grade in the course as incomplete. As Marty was applying to go abroad, he noticed that his grade in Time Travel 200 was still incomplete, asked Professor Doc about the grade, and hoped to remove the incomplete from his transcript so that he could successfully apply to an abroad program. After brief email communication, Doc met with Marty at the beginning of the following semester to discuss the paper and the incomplete grade. Marty said that the lack of citation in his paper was due to a technological issue and could not find many of the notes he had used to write the paper. After discussing Professor Doc’s expectations for citation, Marty agreed to fix the problems in citation and resubmit the paper. Upon receiving Marty’s revised paper, Professor Doc was still concerned because he had only cited primary sources when his writing appeared to have been influenced by the works of other scholars. Professor Doc then asked that Marty contact Honor Council, who subsequently collected statements from both parties. Trial proceedings were significantly slowed by scheduling conflicts. With Marty abroad and Professor Doc not being on campus during many late meeting times, jurors met infrequently, and at times had to cancel and reschedule meetings with Marty after he was unable to be reached via video chat