Developing an honor statement for university students in graduate professional programs

Student and faculty in our graduate professional programs in physical and occupational therapy recently acted on their concerns regarding an upsurge in behaviors that were contrary to those associated with academic integrity (e.g., cheating, plagiarism, etc.). To address this issue, student leaders and faculty members met to consider ideas on how to reverse this negative trend, which ultimately led to the development of an honor statement for the department and establishment of a process for addressing issues related to academic integrity. We used a Delphi method to guide the process of collecting and distilling information, which involved a series of meetings, online surveys, and electronic voting. This article describes the process of formulating and refining that honor statement.