Receiving an email from the Honor Council is unsettling. Knowing what comes next helps. This page describes the process from beginning to end.
A report is not a finding. Cases are closed without any finding at every stage described below.
1. You are notified
You will receive a formal email from the Honor Council describing what has been reported. The person who reported the case is normally copied, as is the investigating officer once assigned.
At the same time, you are assigned a student consultant, a fellow student who can answer your questions about the process. Contacting them is optional and costs you nothing.
2. An investigating officer is assigned
An experienced faculty member serves as investigating officer. Their role is to establish the facts, not to argue a case against you.
They will contact you to arrange a conversation, and may also speak with the reporting faculty member, teaching assistants, or others involved. You will have the opportunity to give your own account. The officer then submits a written report to the Honor Council.
3. The Executive Board reviews the report
The Executive Board reviews the report and reaches one of three decisions by majority vote:
- The case is not advanced. You, the reporting faculty member, and the investigating officer are notified, and the matter ends.
- The case is offered the expedited process, a proposed resolution you may accept or decline.
- The case is referred to a hearing.
4. If you are offered the expedited process
The expedited process lets you accept a finding of “in violation” with a specified sanction instead of going to a hearing. The investigating officer will meet with you to explain the recommendation.
- Declining, or withdrawing, sends the case to a hearing. Neither is held against you.
- You have 24 hours to consider before signing.
- After signing, you have a further 24 hours to withdraw your signature.
5. If your case goes to a hearing
Hearings are held on Zoom and scheduled around the availability of everyone who needs to attend.
The board is chaired by a dean and normally includes two faculty members and two students. For graduate cases, the faculty come from graduate departments and the students are graduate students.
You will receive a letter with the date and time, and access to the case materials at least one week beforehand. You may bring a support person.
During the hearing
The investigating officer presents the case first and board members may ask questions. You are then invited to speak, present additional information, and clarify anything said. You may ask questions to the investigating officer and the reporting faculty member. No new evidence is introduced at this stage, by anyone.
Hearings are not courts of law. They exist to establish facts, weigh circumstances, and reach a fair judgment.
Deliberation
Everyone else leaves and the board deliberates privately in two stages: first whether a violation occurred, and only then, if so, what sanction is appropriate. Mitigating and exacerbating circumstances are weighed at the second stage.
A dean will notify the students of the outcome.
6. Outcome an Appeal
If you are found not in violation, the case is closed and all parties are notified and all your information will be deleted from the Honor Council database.
If you are found in violation, you receive a letter setting out the sanction and the appeal period. You have one full week from the day after the hearing to submit a formal written appeal for a new hearing.
The Executive Committee considers appeals and will notify you of its decision. If an appeal is granted, a new hearing is convened with a different board. Once the appeal period passes or the appeal is resolved, you receive a final outcome letter and the case is closed
7. Support available to you
Everything you share with an Honor Council member is confidential.
8. Sanction Reduction
A finding of “in violation” is not necessarily permanent. The Sanction Reduction Program allows eligible students to have their sanctions reduced by working through a structured plan with the Honor Council.
The program exists because the Council’s purpose is educational rather than punitive. Board members work one-on-one with students to build a plan specific to their circumstances, designed to give them room to reflect on what happened and move forward from it.
Who is elegible
Students found in violation and sanctioned with a Letter of Censure or a Transcript Notation (Level 1) may apply.
How it works
- Apply within one month of receiving the Dean’s letter confirming your final sanction. Send an unsigned copy of the application form to the Sanction Reduction Co-Chairs.
- If your application is approved, a student member of the Sanction Reduction Board will be assigned to you.
- Together you develop a plan tailored to your situation, which the Board then reviews and approves.
- You complete the plan. Reduction takes effect no fewer than six months after the date of your sanction letter.
What reduction means
On successful completion, the sanction is reduced to a Letter of Warning. That letter is removed when you graduate, or immediately if you have already graduated. A Transcript Notation is removed from your transcript at the point of reduction. The student’s information will be removed from the Honor Council records.
Questions
Contact the Sanction Reduction student co-chairs at sanctionreduction@georgetown.edu, or the Honor Council office at honor@georgetown.edu.
Professor Follow-Up and Grading
If a student’s case is not forwarded to a hearing board by the IO, or if a hearing board finds the student “not in violation”, then the professor may not impose any additional grade penalty for the assignment, over and above what the student earned for the particular assignment(s) brought to question.
If a student is found to be “In Violation” of the Honor System, the professor may give the student any grade, for that assignment and for the course, that the professor deems as just.