Honor Code

Upon matriculation, each student brings a wide variety of experiences, hopes, and goals to Mount Holyoke College. These rich backgrounds create and continually shape our communal goals and ideals. As individuals entering a larger community, we recognize and affirm the honor system as the foundation upon which our community is built. We, the students of Mount Holyoke, recognize the fragility of this collective ideal, yet strive to achieve it nonetheless. To this end we choose to live by the following code of honor:

I will honor myself, my fellow students, and Mount Holyoke College by acting responsibly, honestly, and respectfully in both my words and deeds.

While this code of honor allows for a significant degree of individual freedom, the definition of a general framework of values is necessary. In choosing to live by a social honor code, we also agree to integrate the following standards into our own definition of personal honesty as outlined in the following interpretation of the code:

Though each student’s individual conception of responsibility is unique, we trust that every student will demonstrate ownership of her actions and will recognize the ways in which her actions affect her peers, the College, and the greater community. Each student maintains her ability to express herself with integrity, which is crucial to the development of a community that is personally challenging, both intellectually and socially. A sense of honesty is fostered by the individual’s ability to express herself in a candid and forthright manner. Respecting oneself and others requires that every individual maintain the integrity of her own values, while acting in a way that is careful and considerate of others. In our community, mutual respect can be obtained only by valuing free inquiry, respect for difference, and intellectual honesty.

The framework of our honor code assumes adherence to the rules and regulations of the College which are designed to promote intellectual and social pursuits and to ensure personal safety. In addition, the College protects and upholds human rights policies, and is committed to an inclusive and diverse community.

Statement on the Honor System

The honor code is the hallmark of life together at Mount Holyoke College. Simply stated, it means that each student is responsible for maintaining her own integrity and, to the best of her ability, the integrity of the Mount Holyoke community. While broad in its applications, it provides a guideline for decision making which holds each student to principles of good conduct toward herself and others. To ensure the care and preservation of the honor code, standards and procedures have been developed and implemented to provide the structure by which the honor code is administered. Students are expected to comply with the rules and regulations of the College. Beyond minimal compliance, students under an honor code grow to understand, through course work, collaborative learning, and living together, that honor is achieved with diligence, commitment, and courage.

The Mount Holyoke College honor system relies on the integrity of each student. The strength of the system derives from the honesty and self-discipline of every student and from the faith of the faculty and the administration in the student body. With integrity as the foundation, the honor system promotes individual freedom tempered by responsibility to the community. The student demonstrates her respect for individual freedom by conducting herself with maturity and honor, and by showing due concern for the welfare of other members of the community.

College regulations delineate the expected standard of behavior in academic and social circumstances. Dishonorable academic conduct, such as plagiarism and cheating, discredits the individual student. Behavior which is in conflict with the social regulations of the College is detrimental to the well-being of the Mount Holyoke community. Abiding by community standards, under the honor system, indicates a mature acceptance of community responsibility.