In a truly academic community, honor must be expected. Honor is an ideal that is evident in the lives of ethical scholars. Primarily, the function of the Georgetown College Honor System is to educate and instill a common purpose within the campus student community. The Honor System is an educational tool to assist the process of teaching morality and ethics. The Honor System helps create an environment that will assist in the development of the whole person by insisting upon honorable traits and behavior. Further, the process assists in the establishment of precedent, consistency, and fairness with regard to questions of academic integrity. An effective honor system requires students and faculty to understand and abide by the system’s expectations.
The strength of the Honor System is in the creation of an atmosphere in which students can act with individual responsibility. This includes the personal decision to act honorably and not to tolerate others who choose to violate the conditions of the Honor System. Therefore, an important aspect of the College’s Honor System is that all students must report violations of the Honor System by their peers. Faculty and staff must also understand the spirit of the system and do everything possible to abide by the guidelines. All students are expected to sign an understanding of the Honor System. Details of the process for adjudicating Honor offenses can be found in the online Student Handbook.