2007-08
The 2007 national convention theme "Celebrating Honor" continued Alpha Chi's emphasis on promoting the cause of academic integrity on member campuses. The following were highlights of this effort:

· Distinguished Alumni Award winner for 2007, Dr. Tommy Hewett, speaking at the opening banquet, devoted his talk to the theme of personal integrity.
· At Friday morning's breakfast workshop sessions, delegates worked on several case problems in academic integrity, with discussions coordinated by student members of the National Council.
· Dr. Don McCabe of Rutgers University addressed a plenary session Friday morning on "Promoting Academic Integrity." McCabe is the foremost researcher on college cheating and was founding president of the Center for Academic Integrity, a consortium of about 400 colleges and universities.
· Saturday morning's workshop period included an Academic Integrity Mercado (marketplace) exhibit area where nine chapters displayed their efforts on campus to carry out the theme of academic integrity. One of the chapters, California Gamma at Azusa Pacific University, also led a workshop session that explained their program in detail. These chapters did a great job as part of the Mercado:

Academic Integrity Mercado

Azusa Pacific University, California Gamma Carson-Newman College, Tennessee Delta Concord College, West Virginia Beta, and Bluefield College, Virginia Kappa (jointly) Gardner-Webb University, North Carolina Zeta Huntington University, Indiana Beta Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan Delta Thomas University, Georgia Lambda University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas Alpha Pi

· The Concord University - Bluefield College project, which was completed following the convention, was a video teleconference, "The Integrity of Academic Writing," conducted on April 3, 2007. Originating from the Concord campus, the program involved two additional participants at remote sites--Dr. Dennis Organ, executive director of Alpha Chi, who introduced the program on behalf of the national organization, and Tim Dodd, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity, from his office in North Carolina. A panel of faculty and Alpha Chi members at the two institutions discussed, along with Dodd, a wide range of topics related to integrity in academic writing. The project was directed by Dr. Steve Rowe, sponsor at Concord, and Dr. Robert Merritt, sponsor at Bluefield. DVDs of the hour-long teleconference are available upon request from the national office, alphachi@harding.edu.

2005-07
Signaling a commitment to the promotion of academic honesty on its member campuses, Alpha Chi kicked off a two-year project on the topic at the 2005 national convention with the theme "With Honor and Integrity."

The opening banquet featured an address on ethics by the 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award winner, Coleen Rowley, the former FBI agent who was one of Time magazine's "Persons of the Year" for 2002. Rowley spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of being regarded as a hero-in her case for publicly calling attention to FBI lapses prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. (Click here for the text of Rowley's speech.)

Another plenary session included a keynote presentation on the theme of the convention and the two-year national project. Dr. Dennis Organ, Alpha Chi executive director, summarized recent research data on academic dishonesty in higher education and called on delegates to work at their institutions to combat the problem. (Click here for the text of Organ's presentation.)

Finally, convention delegates turned their attention to the issue of academic integrity in a series of workshops in which they worked briefly on a case problem involving plagiarism and then brainstormed on the question of how a local chapter of Alpha Chi could promote academic honesty on campus. (Click here for the ideas generated by the workshops.)

Alpha Chi intends to keep a focus on this theme at least until the next national convention in the spring of 2009. Alpha Chi's work is part of a three year-national project of the Association of College Honor Societies named "A Matter of Ethics." Under this umbrella concept, member societies are developing initiatives on ethical issues most relevant to their academic and professional disciplines.

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