A website created by recent graduatess that launched in February to offer students helpful study resources such as class notes has material for all Emory spring 2009 courses and has found that 94 percent of Emory students would utilize the site.

But UniversityJunction.com’s provision of past tests and assignments could pose ethical questions and create the potential to serve as a platform for honor code violations.

“It’s an ethical alternative to other sites out there,” Communications Director of University Junction Liz Mitchell said. The website requires students who access the site to agree to a statement that they will not violate their university’s honor code when using the website study material.

A McGill University and New York University graduate, Mitchell is one of five recent graduate students who helped design the site, which she said is a place where students can collaborate and share information online through effective academic communication. Mitchell said the website is a place where students do not have to be embarrassed to ask questions and where students can seek help to supplement their classroom experience.

The founders conducted research from approximately 1,000 college students throughout the nation and found that 94 percent of them use online resources for supplemental aid. Mitchell said Students can post questions on the site to be answered within 24 hours by Ivy League graduate tutors.

“Students are still going to go to class and read textbooks. This is just another source to rely on,” Mitchell said.

Chairman of Emory’s Conduct Council Kelse Moen said that despite the website’s good intentions and potential to help, it poses potential honor code violation.
“I can only imagine it having a detrimental impact at Emory,” he said. “It’s promoting something only some professors will be okay with but a majority will not be okay with.”

Moen warns that the website could open the door for cheating. He said students must make sure to know the professor’s policy. Though the mission of the website is inherently good, Moen said, students must be careful.

“What I expect to see is an increase in the incident of cheating, whether they do it maliciously,” he said.

Emory is one of 56 universities on the website, which currently has five Emory users. The universities added thus far were chosen based on school rankings from a group of sources, Mitchell said, and by fall 2009, the database will include 160 campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Mitchell said the site relies on students to exchange and regulate info, she said. There are currently 1600 students throughout the U.S. and Canada signed up on the website and 1.1 million available files.

Although she believes it is ethically sound, Mitchell said that in the end UniversityJunction.com cannot prevent all violations.

— Contact Anum Mohammad.