REPORT ON THE SINGLE SANCTION
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
INVESTIGATION OF THE SINGLE SANCTION
AD HOC COMMITTEE TO THE HONOR COMMITTEE
Released, March 2006
Introduction
The Committee for the Investigation of the Single Sanction was formed in 2005 to provide data-driven information about the single sanction and its impact upon the Honor System and the community at-large. This report provides the Committee's findings in three areas of analysis:
" The potential impact of the sanction upon student rates of cheating.
" The potential impact of the single sanction upon the reporting
of Honor cases to the Committee.
" The potential impact of the single sanction upon jury verdicts
at Honor trials.
This report is divided into three sections, each related specifically to the above research questions.
In order to analyze student rates of cheating and reporting, the Committee utilized a survey conducted by Professor Don Mc Cabe, a faculty member at Rutgers University who has studied student cheating and Honor Systems for over fifteen years. To add to his longitudinal data set, Mc Cabe asked the Honor Committee to participate in a re-test of a cheating survey distributed in 1990 and 1995. This survey, distributed through both mail and the web at a number of colleges and universities nationwide asked respondents questions about their own cheating behavior, their perception of cheating behavior around them, and respondents' willingness to report knowledge of offenses to the appropriate body. The web-based version of the UVA questionnaire also asked respondents specifically about their feelings on the single sanction and its impact on their decision to report offenses. In addition to this information, the Committee also used a previous student survey conducted by the Honor Committee in 2000-2001.
Consideration of the impact of the single sanction upon jury verdicts
consisted of a thorough examination of approximately five years worth
of post-trial juror questionnaires. The methodology for this study is
discussed in greater detail in the relevant section of the report.