The Schools Without ChatGPT Plagiarism - The Atlantic
A robust honor code—and abundant institutional resources—can make a difference. Among the most tangible and immediate effects of the generative-AI boom has been a total upending of English classes. On November 30, 2022, the release of ChatGPT offered a tool that could write at least reasonably well for students—and by all accounts, the plagiarism began the next day and hasn’t stopped since.
But there are at least two American colleges that ChatGPT hasn’t ruined, according to a new article for The Atlantic by Tyler Austin Harper: Haverford College (Harper’s alma mater) and nearby Bryn Mawr. Both are small, private liberal-arts colleges governed by the honor code—students are trusted to take unproctored exams or even bring tests home.
Honor Code and Institutional Support
At Haverford, none of the dozens of students Harper spoke with “thought AI cheating was a substantial problem at the school,” he wrote. “These interviews were so repetitive, they almost became boring.” 
Both Haverford and Bryn Mawr are relatively wealthy and small, meaning students have access to office hours, therapists, a writing center, and other resources when they struggle with writing.
Even so, money can’t substitute for culture. A spike in cheating recently led Stanford to end a century of unproctored exams. “The decisive factor” for schools in the age of ChatGPT “seems to be whether a university’s honor code is deeply woven into the fabric of campus life,” Harper writes, “or is little more than a policy slapped on a website."
Student Perspective
Two of them were sprawled out on a long concrete bench in front of the main Haverford College library, one scribbling in a battered spiral-ring notebook, the other making annotations in the white margins of a novel. 
Three more sat on the ground beneath them, crisscross-applesauce, chatting about classes. A little hip, a little nerdy, a little tattooed; unmistakably English majors.
The scene had the trappings of a campus-movie set piece: blue skies, green greens, kids both working and not working, at once anxious and carefree. When asked about ChatGPT-assisted cheating, the students expressed their dedication to writing and their disinterest in using AI for their work.
Further Reading
What to Read Next: With Halloween less than a week away, you may be noticing some startlingly girthy pumpkins. In fact, giant pumpkins have been getting more gargantuan for years—the largest ever, named Michael Jordan, set the world record for heaviest pumpkin in 2023, at 2,749 pounds.
Nobody knows what the upper limit is, my colleague Yasmin Tayag reports in a delightful article this week.
More Stories: ‘Stop Counting Votes, or We’re Going to Murder Your Children’ - Big Tech Has Given Itself an AI Deadline 
