Honor Code Changed to “Aggies Do Not Lie, Cheat, or Use GroupMe”

Last week, the Aggie Honor System Office (AHSO) and the Board of Regents voted to amend the Texas A&M University Honor Code to “An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or use GroupMe, or tolerate those who do.” The decision follows months of deliberations that sought to balance preserving tradition with the growing need to modernize university policies. 

 “54% of last year’s honor violations involved GroupMe in some form or fashion,” said Timothy Powers, the director of the Honor System Office. “The new code makes it clear that GroupMe is an inherently academically dishonest platform. Any form of mass-communication among peers is ripe for cheating and simply cannot be allowed.”

Reactions to the change have been mixed among students and faculty. Lorelei Garvent, a freshman majoring in economics, opposes the GroupMe ban. “Because of the convenience of GroupMe, I haven’t bothered to actually meet anybody in my POLS 207 lecture,” Garvent said. “Do they expect me to just, like, talk to my professor when I have questions?”

Dr. Greg Bainbridge, a sociology professor and Honor Council faculty panelist, hopes the change will reduce student anxiety by clarifying the university’s expectations regarding academic honesty. “With the new code in place, students won’t have to frantically leave a GroupMe en masse when one of their peers comments that the test wasn’t too bad,” Bainbridge said. “Hopefully, I’ll also get fewer emails from students trying to protect themselves by narcing on their fellow classmates.”

“What’s GroupMe?” said Dr. Marcia Gurcet, an introductory biology professor. “Is that the online flashcards thing that has all my test questions?”

—Heldenfalls

Heldenfalls

Once an average student eons ago, Heldenfalls committed some unknown sin against the Aggie gods and has since been burdened with a strange punishment: She is forced to carry her backpack to the top of the infamous Heldenfels stairs only to fall back to the bottom again over and over for all eternity. Though this may seem like a horrible fate, the philosophy department argues that Heldenfalls’ endless task represents the absurd heroism of the human condition. Each atom of that backpack, each mineral flake of those concrete stairs, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a woman’s heart. One must imagine Heldenfalls happy.