Amherst College Honor Code

Amherst College depends on the personal concern of its members for each other, and on the concern of all, to maintain the community standards of conduct set forth by the Honor Code. It is each student's responsibility to contribute to an environment of trust that protects the freedom of all to exchange ideas and to grow. Only in such trust and freedom will it be possible for students to live together and learn from one another.

The Amherst College Honor Code consists of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility, the Statement of Respect for Persons, the Statement of Freedom of Expression and Dissent and the Statement of Student Rights. The Honor Code is collectively shaped and upheld by students, faculty and staff.

The entire Honor Code statement may be found in the Amherst College Student Code of Conduct.

The Statement of Intellectual Responsibility is detailed below.

Statement of Intellectual Responsibility

Every person's education is the product of their intellectual effort and participation in a process of critical exchange. Amherst College cannot educate those who are unwilling to submit their own work and ideas to critical assessment. Nor can it tolerate those who interfere with the participation of others in the critical process. Therefore, the college considers it a violation of the requirements of intellectual responsibility to submit work that is not one's own or otherwise to subvert the conditions under which academic work is performed by oneself or by others.

Student Responsibility

  • In undertaking studies at Amherst College, every student agrees to abide by the above statement.
  • Students shall receive copies of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility with their initial course schedules at the beginning of each semester. It is the responsibility of each student to read and understand this statement and to inquire as to its implications in their specific course.
  • Orderly and honorable conduct of examinations is the individual and collective responsibility of the students concerned, in accordance with the above statement.

Faculty Responsibility

  • Promotion of the aims of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility is a general responsibility of the faculty.
  • Every member of the faculty has a specific responsibility to explain the implications of the statement for each of their courses, including a specification of the conditions under which academic work in those courses is to be performed. At the beginning of each semester, members of the faculty will receive, with their initial class lists, a copy of the Statement of Intellectual Responsibility and a reminder of the duty to explain its implications in each course.
  • Examinations shall not be proctored unless an instructor judges that the integrity of the assessment process is clearly threatened. An instructor may be present at examinations at appropriate times to answer questions.

Jurisdiction

Amherst College has joined with Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Hampshire College and the University of Massachusetts to form the Five Colleges. Amherst College students, when studying or visiting one of the Five Colleges, are subject to the standards set forth in the Amherst College Honor Code and to the regulations and procedures of that institution.