History

The Center for Academic Integrity can trace its roots to a March, 1992 conference hosted by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University and held at the Newark, New Jersey Airport Marriott hotel. The conference was organized to review and discuss the results of his 1990 survey of academic integrity at 31 schools and was supported by grant funds he had received for his research.

At the conclusion of the conference, Jim Lyons of Stanford University was asked to facilitate a discussion about "where we go from here." During the ensuing dialogue, Bill Kibler, then at Texas A&M University proposed the creation of a "Center for the Study of Academic Integrity." A group of six volunteers - Don McCabe, Jim Lyons, Bill Kibler, plus Sally Cole of Stanford University, Gary Pavela of the University of Maryland, and John Margolis of Northwestern University - discussed the idea. Their efforts bore immediate fruit: the Center for Academic Integrity was founded and, in October 1992, was incorporated in the State of Maryland. Don McCabe became the first President and the other members of the group served as the first Board of Directors.

In its first three years, the CAI was a loosely organized group of students, faculty, and administrators who gathered annually for a conference and communicated at other times via an electronic listserv and occasional newsletters. Membership signified a commitment to the goals of academic integrity and an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other, equally committed, colleges and universities. The Center counted twenty-four colleges and universities among its charter members.

The first official Center for Academic Integrity conference was held in March 1993 at the University of Maryland. The decision was made at that conference to hold future conferences in the Fall since student honor boards were expressing interest in attending the conference as part of their training. The second CAI conference was held in October 1993 at the University of Pennsylvania; Rice University hosted the fall, 1994 conference. At the time of the October, 1995 conference at Georgetown University, the membership had grown from twenty-four charter members to sixty-six schools.

In the spring of 1995, the CAI received a two-year $80,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to support its organizational viability. In order to provide stable leadership and organizational continuity, the Board decided to appoint Sally Cole, then at Stanford University and serving as the third President of CAI, as the first part-time executive director. Grant funds also supported increasing the CAI's visibility through presentations at national conferences, the creation of a membership brochure and professional letterhead, and the development of a website. Prior to the award of the Hewlett grant, the CAI Board of Directors met only once a year at the annual conference. During this grant period, however, the Board met twice each year, which greatly accelerated the CAI's organizational development.

Also in 1995, sensing that CAI was moving in too many directions with insufficient focus, then-President Wanda Mercer of Tarleton State University appointed a task force of four Board members and asked them to evaluate the organization's history and make recommendations for its future. The task force reaffirmed two essential features of the organization: its focus on academic integrity and its involvement of students, faculty, and administrators as equal partners and participants in the national dialogue. The task force recommended that these unique features be highlighted, perpetuated and strengthened. The members of the task force also proposed that the Center for Academic Integrity "model and encourage dialogue about academic integrity and promote coherent principles to which member institutions will contribute and subscribe." This proposed undertaking would extend the organization's mission beyond the original service function and its other early goal of "showcasing successful approaches to academic integrity." This new mission and its call for "coherent principles" and membership support of those principles mandated a high degree of organizational consensus, first by asking members for their help in articulating these fundamental principles and then requesting their endorsement. In effect, the task force report proposed a vision for an organization that not only served its members but also operated as a think tank and as an agent of social change. At a spring 1996 Board of Directors retreat, the Board of Directors reviewed the task force recommendations and in the fall of 1996, the full Board of Directors approved their recommendations.

In January 1997, Duke University established the Kenan Ethics Program, a new and exciting initiative that was, four years later, to achieve permanence and prominence as the Kenan Institute for Ethics under the leadership of Dr. Elizabeth Kiss. Prior to the establishment of the Institute, Executive Director Cole and Dr. Kiss had discussed the overlapping visions and missions of the two organizations and the possibility of CAI moving to North Carolina and affiliating with the Kenan Ethics Program. In the summer of 1997, the Center for Academic Integrity moved from Stanford University to Duke University and began a three-year affiliation with the Kenan Ethics Program. The affiliation was an instant success and has proved mutually beneficial.

In 1998, with continued support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the CAI launched a project that would, over a two-year period, identify and describe "fundamental values of academic integrity" and their implications for daily campus life. After eighteen months of deliberation, writing, and discussion with hundreds of students, faculty, and administrators in settings all around the country, the CAI released, in October 1999, a report on The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity: Honesty, Trust, Respect, Fairness, Responsibility. Over 4,000 college and university presidents received the report, along with an introductory message from then-Duke University president Nannerl O. Keohane and endorsements from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and twenty-three higher education organizations.

In early 1999, recognizing that fundamental values need to be applied in practice, the CAI received funding support from the John Templeton Foundation to develop and test an Academic Integrity Assessment and Action Guide that would help schools apply the fundamental values in assessing their campus academic integrity programs. Twelve institutions participated in a one-year pilot project, using the Guide on their campuses to look critically at their academic integrity policies, enforcement procedures, sanctions, educational programs, curricular offerings, and internal assessment activities.

The pilot schools also evaluated the contents of the Guide and submitted detailed feedback on how it might be improved for a broader audience. In April 2000, representatives from each of the twelve schools attended a one-day conference at Vanderbilt University and provided additional recommendations. The final Guide was released in early 2001. Over 140 schools have purchased and utilized the Assessment Guide in order to investigate and improve the climate of integrity on their campuses.

In the Fall of 1999, the Board of Directors made two decisions intended to assure the CAI's long term organizational viability. The Board endorsed a long-term strategic financial plan proposed by President-Elect Bill Kibler that included an increase in dues, financial goals for the annual conference, growth goals for membership, and the establishment of a reserve fund. The Board also approved an initiative to seek a third grant from the Hewlett Foundation to support these goals. Through the efforts and leadership of Executive Director Sally Cole and Kenan Director Elizabeth Kiss, the CAI's grant proposal was funded.

In July 2000 Sally Cole retired as the CAI's first Executive Director. At that time, the Board made a significant decision to upgrade the executive director position to full-time status and to include Kenan Institute program administrator duties within the job description. After a national search, Diane ("Daisy") Waryold of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte was selected as the second Executive Director. As the first full-time Executive Director, Daisy was able to increase the visibility of the organization at Duke University while more closely aligning the work of the CAI with the Kenan Institute for Ethics. She was responsible, in large measure, for improving the financial position of the organization, extending its reach into the international arena and into the high school community, and increasing its membership to over 300 colleges, universities and secondary schools. Daisy served as Executive Director until July of 2004 at which time she accepted an offer to join the faculty at Appalachian State University.

During her time as Executive Director, Daisy collaborated with Elizabeth Kiss on a grant proposal to the John Templeton Foundation to support research into moral development, moral education, and institutional culture and their relationship to academic integrity. The eighteen month collaboration produced a successful grant proposal and the funding of the Templeton Fellows Program in 2004-2006 which supported a group of one senior and four junior scholars in their academic integrity-related research and established the CAI at the forefront of academic integrity scholarship.

After Daisy's departure, the Center for Academic Integrity entered a period in which it would assess its leadership, its organizational structure and, ultimately, its organizational affiliation. The Center was most fortunate in attracting Mindy Dalgarn and later Tim Dodd to direct the Center’s home office operations. Mindy brought to the Center experience and expertise garnered through many years as a senior level student affairs administrator at Vanderbilt University and Mercer College and was instrumental in organizing the successful 2004 conference at Kansas State. She also authored important proposals on Board member consulting opportunities, a student summer internship program, and conference protocols. Tim has played a critical role in strengthening the CAI’s service to members, increasing the size and scope of the international conference, establishing an “expert registry” of consultants and presenters, improving the visibility and prominence of the organization through print and broadcast media contacts, and stabilizing the financial state of the organization. Most importantly, Tim authored a business analysis that spurred the Center and the Kenan Institute to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the current partnership. To that end, Tim organized a “leadership group” of founders and past and current presidents, include Don McCabe, Bill Kibler, Mary Olson, Jim Lancaster, Patrick Drinan, Mark Hyatt and Katie Meriano, who have advised him and the Board of Directors on new opportunities for partnerships and service to the CAI mission. One important aim was to explore new partnership opportunities with an eye to strengthening the CAI’s mission activities and enhancing its service to its members and the higher education community. After a series of discussions, meetings, proposal reviews, and negotiations with a number of universities and higher education organizations, the CAI Board of Directors voted unanimously to accept the proposal from Clemson University to relocate our organization to its campus. The Center for Academic Integrity officially moved to its new home at Clemson on July 2, 2007.

At Clemson, the Center for Academic Integrity is part of a rich matrix of organizational units with common interests and purposes. As such, in addition to promoting academic integrity actively on the Clemson University campus, the CAI will work with the Rutland Institute for Ethics, the Eugene T. Moore School of Education, the Graduate School, and the Office of Research Compliance to expand its research activities, cast additional light on faculty responsibilities in sustaining the integrity of the academy, and develop/pilot integrated approaches to academic integrity in teacher education as well as graduate programs in student affairs and K-12 administration.

The CAI’s intellectual leadership and public advocacy will be enhanced further with support from and collaborative activities with the Office of Student Affairs, Undergraduate Studies, the Pearce Center for Professional Communication, and the College of Business and Behavioral Science. The move to Clemson involved relinquishing our independent 501 (c) (3) nonprofit status; the Center for Academic Integrity will now continue as a membership organization in a different and more robust affiliation with the Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University, which is a nonprofit organization. At Clemson, the Interim Director of CAI is Dr. Stephen Satris, and the Director of the Rutland Institute, in which the CAI is housed, is Dr. Daniel Wueste.