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Unlike traditional honor code schools that automatically expel students for cheating, UC Davis offers milder forms of punishment for students who own up to their mistakes in counseling session with judicial offers. Punishment can be suspension or probation with chores such as writing a paper on why students shouldn’t cheat and performing community service to spread the word to their peers.

The escalating problem of cheating isn’t unique to college. In fact, it’s one of the few things that most students seem to master in high school, if not earlier.

A record 80% of the nation’s brightest high school seniors admitted cheating, according to Who’s Who Among American High School Students.

For many it’s a measure of high school bravado, a game of us-against-them: What can thrill-seeking teenagers get away with under the noses of teachers who are either too clueless or battle-weary to care?

The psychology shifts in college–or at least it can, McCabe said. Although McCabe believes every school has a contingent of hard-core cheaters and strict non-cheaters on the margins, the vast majority of students, he said, make up their minds after they get to college.

If they see widespread cheating, students feel compelled to join in to make sure their grades do not suffer from an inflated curve, he said. If they sense that cheating is rare and socially unacceptable and that they are competing on a level playing field, they are less likely to do it.

“That’s where honor codes can make a big difference,” McCabe said.

Schools with traditional honor codes, such as Princeton, Rice and the University of Virginia, have some of the lowest rates of cheating, surveys show.

Under traditional honor codes, students sign a pledge that they will not cheat and, in return, professors do not monitor exams. A violation of this trust often means expulsion.

Students say they appreciate the trust and freedom of unproctored or take-home exams and are thus more willing to meet higher expectations.

Yet only about 100 of the nation’s 3,500 colleges and universities have such traditional honor codes. Many others were casualties of the student movement in the 1960s.

Suddenly, though, a resurgence seems to be underway. The University of Miami, as well as Georgetown, George Washington and Colgate universities have adopted honor codes in recent years, and the University of Mississippi and the University of San Diego are headed that way too.

“You can only get so far with better faculty enforcement,” said Pat Drinan, dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of San Diego. “If you want to make a significant difference in cheating rates, you have to change the culture and move toward an honor code.”

The Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University, founded by McCabe in 1992, now has more than 200 member colleges and universities. Its annual meetings swell every year with more students, faculty and administrators pursuing honor codes.

Cheating generally runs higher on larger campuses, making exams without proctors impractical for classes that enroll 100 students or more.

So places like UC Davis, which has 25,000 students, continue to monitor exams but also embrace aspects of an honor code that seem to work: putting students in charge of inspiring their peers not to cheat and disciplining those who do.

Under UC Davis’ modified honor code, the student-run Campus Judicial Board decides the fate of students in the thorniest cheating cases. The board members–and often the students who come before them–also become campus cheerleaders for academic honesty.

“The university takes pride in catching people early on and turning them around,” said John McCann, an engineering student. “I know because I was one of those cases.”

McCann was caught two years ago lifting another student’s homework because he couldn’t figure out some problems.

“I knew I made a mistake and I admitted it,” he said. “I had to take my punches.” Initially threatened with suspension for one academic quarter, McCann ended up on probation with public service.

McCann, now a graduate student and teaching assistant, has found himself turning in undergraduates for copying each other’s homework.

“In my classes,” McCann said, “I make an announcement: ‘You do not cheat. Even if I don’t catch you, you won’t be able to pretend you know the material. In industry, you cannot pretend. If you don’t know what you are doing, you will get fired.’ ”

Beginning Monday, Judicial Board members will hold seminars and hand out T-shirts and other freebies during the campus’ Integrity Week. “De-Stress Day” comes closer to finals, with free ice cream and a chance to dunk an administrator into a tank of water.

“People say, ‘I’m not normally the kind of person who cheats, but I was so stressed out,’ ” said P.J. Haley, a sophomore on the Campus Judicial Board. “We say, the point is not to stress out so much . . . and do the right thing.”

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