February 15, 2012

Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Surgery Keefe Manning is scheduled to address student leaders at tonight’s UPUA meeting.

Manning plans to give a special presentation regarding the Honor Code and Academic Integrity Task Force, Chairwoman of the Assembly Kelly Terefenko wrote in an email.

Terefenko (senior-international politics and national security) said the task force has been charged with formulating a university-wide honor code, and Manning will present an initial progress report at the general assembly meeting.

Manning is a co-chair on the task force alongside Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies Pamela Hufnagel. The task force was introduced on Nov. 1 in order to look into the possibility of creating an honor code at Penn State, Manning said.

The task force began by looking at various institutions across the country to see which had honor codes and which honor codes were successfully employed, Manning said. He added that the presentation to the University Park Undergraduate Association is the next step in the task force’s progress.

As of now, the task force is still gathering feedback from students and staff and plans on presenting their ideas to other student groups such as the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments.

Manning said that if an honor code is installed, it will not be looked at as a “code,” but more so a statement summarizing the ideals that Penn State, as a university, stands for.

“We’re looking at it as a statement of honor and integrity,” Manning said. “This is an all-encompassing umbrella — it is a central theme of Penn State principles.”

Apart from Manning’s presentation, one new piece of legislation will be introduced at the meeting.

The resolution, which Terefenko said she wrote personally, involves releasing funds for the 2012 student handbook, referred to as “The ‘S’ Book.” Terefenko said the project was already budgeted at the beginning of the semester, and this new legislation outlines specific details regarding the student handbooks.

Terefenko said the legislation stipulates that UPUA will print a total of 8,500 books — 7,500 to be distributed to all incoming freshman at the earliest FTCAP meeting on May 5, and 1,000 to be used for student activities and programs such as LinkUP and Winter Welcome.

UPUA spent about $14,000 on “S Books” for the 2011-2012 academic year.

The book includes a small campus map, screen shots of the eLion and Angel websites, interesting facts about Penn State and the lyrics to Penn State’s Alma Mater and fight songs.

Governmental Affairs Chair Adam Boyer said he thinks it’s a good idea that student handbooks will be distributed during the FTCAP day.

In 2010 and 2011, UPUA didn’t distribute all of the books to freshman as scheduled.

Boyer (senior-history and political science) added he thinks it’s too overwhelming for new students to receive the handbooks in their mailboxes at a time when they will be “flooded” with so much new information at the start of a semester.

Boyer said that the handbooks are not just meant for freshmen, but all incoming students to utilize.

Collegian staff writer Aria Moyer contributed to this report.

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Speaker to discuss Honor Code at UPUA meeting