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lthough he has no regrets about his choice to go to Duke, Honor
Council Chair Dave Chokshi, a junior, readily admits, "My experiences
in my first semester at Duke weren't exactly what I was looking
for. The academic atmosphere wasn't what I expected. I came to college
expecting all these students to be really into learning for learning's
sake, and that would be the difference between a place like Duke
and a place like a state university. And I didn't really see that,
necessarily."
Chokshi's disappointment over Duke's academic climate motivated
him to become involved in an organization that could potentially
change it. During the second semester of his freshman year, the
chemistry and public policy major was chosen as a member of
the Honor Council. He was elected vice chair as a sophomore, and
then council chair earlier this year.
"A lot of people are confused about what the Honor Council
is," he says. "That's one of our biggest problems in terms
of PR. We're the group that is sort of responsible for promoting
the honor code and having discussions on academic integrity and
just ethics in general." Chokshi is quick to point out that
the Honor Council is separate from the Undergraduate Judicial Board,
which handles judicial cases.
As chair, Chokshi has been involved in programming and policy.
The council coordinates the signing of the honor-code ceremony during
freshman orientation, as well as dorm programs that inform students
about the code and present
scenarios about how to make ethical decisions regarding it. This
year the organization sponsored an "Ethics of Racial Profiling"
forum and an address on the ethics of foreign policy, given by Sir
Jeremy Greenstock, the chair of the United Nation's terrorism committee.
Collaborating with Duke Student Government's Academic Integrity
Council, the Honor Council is working on a proposal to allow for
unproctored exams by strengthening the honor code's clause on reporting
fellow students observed cheating. Another proposed policy change
involves replacing the system that requires a dean's excuse for
illness; students having to miss class would write a memo to the
professor, signing it under the honor code. And the council would
like to establish a "sliding scale" system for judicial
sanctions to replace one that could potentially give the same punishment
to students who commit very different offenses.
As Chokshi prepares to step down from his position as chair and
sets his sights on medical school, he sees a major problem for the
council: Duke's honor code is a relatively young nine years old.
"The seniors don't take it seriously so the freshmen don't
take it seriously," he says. "And it's really hard to
break that cycle--that's the main challenge that we face in everything
that we do."
Besides his Honor Council involvement, Chokshi has been editor
of Vertices, the undergraduate science and technology publication.
He says he hopes to develop it into "a journal that reflects
the nature of Duke as both a research university and an institution
committed to the liberal arts. To that end, we try to include feature
articles that pique the interest of the scientist and the layman
alike, essays exploring the influence of science on society, and
research articles describing original work undertaken by undergraduates."
Chokshi, who also chairs the campus Red Cross Club, has earned
national recognition for his Duke doings. In April he received the
Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, which rewards students who excel
in mathematics, science, or engineering by partially funding graduate
school. Then he learned he had earned a Truman Scholarship, which
provides educational funding for students who have made a past and
future commitment to public service.
After all the time that he has volunteered while at Duke, Chokshi
recognizes that it's a tough, slow process to change the climate
of a community.
"I think that the difficult part about being on the Honor
Council is that you know that, when you graduate, you're not going
to see very many tangible changes in the academic integrity system
at Duke. You still have to work toward it because there are gradual
changes that are made."
--Julia Connors '04
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