The Center for Academic Integrity traces its roots to a March, 1992 conference hosted by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. The conference’s purpose was to discuss the results of McCabe’s 1990 survey of academic integrity at 31 schools that had revealed significant and troubling data concerning both the extent of cheating and the attitudes surrounding it. At the conclusion of the conference, Jim Lyons of Stanford University led discussion about “where we go from here,” and 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, Sally Cole of Stanford University, Gary Pavela of the University of Maryland, and John Margolis of Northwestern University – worked to found the Center for Academic Integrity which, 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 its first Board of Directors. The Center counted twenty-four colleges and universities among its charter members who, by their membership, committed themselves to the goals of promoting and fostering the ideals of academic integrity as well as to sharing and learning from other equally committed institutions.
The first official Center for Academic Integrity Conference was held in March 1993 at the University of Maryland. The second CAI conference was held in October 1993 at the University of Pennsylvania; in 1994, Gary Pavela became the Center’s second president and 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. The grant enabled the board to appoint Sally Cole, then serving as the third President of CAI, as the first executive director and to increase the number of board meetings to twice per year. Additionally, CAI’s fourth president, Wanda Mercer of Tarleton State University appointed a task force of four Board members to chart the organization’s 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 dialogs concerning academic ethics and integrity. The task force recommended that these unique features be highlighted, perpetuated and strengthened and that the Center for Academic Integrity should “model and encourage dialogue about academic integrity and promote coherent principles to which member institutions will contribute and subscribe,” to enable organization not only to serve its members but also to operate as a think tank and an active agent of social change. At a spring 1996 retreat, the Board of Directors reviewed and approved the task force recommendations.
In January 1997, Duke University established the Kenan Ethics Program, a new and exciting initiative that would soon become 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 proved mutually beneficial in many ways.
In 1998, with continued support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the CAI launched a two-year project to identify and describe “fundamental values of academic integrity” and their implications for daily campus life. In October 1999, CAI released its report on The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity: Honesty, Trust, Respect, Fairness, Responsibility to more than 4,000 college and university presidents, 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.
To meet the growing need for practical academic integrity resource materials, in early 1999 CAI received funding from the John Templeton Foundation to develop and test an Academic Integrity Assessment and Action Guide to help schools to assess the effectiveness of their campus academic integrity programs. Twelve institutions participated in a one-year pilot project, using the Guide to critique their academic integrity policies, enforcement procedures, sanctions, and educational programs. The pilot schools evaluated the contents of the Guide and submitted detailed feedback on how it might be improved for a broader audience. After representatives from each of the twelve schools provided additional recommendations, the final Guide was released in early 2001. Since then over 160 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 approved an initiative to seek a third grant from the Hewlett Foundation. Through the efforts and leadership of Executive Director Sally Cole and Kenan Director Elizabeth Kiss, the CAI’s grant proposal was funded. The following year Sally Cole retired as the CAI’s first Executive Director and Diane (“Daisy”) Waryold of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte was selected as her successor and the first full-time executive director. Daisy worked 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 had great success 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. She also collaborated with Elizabeth Kiss to secure funding from 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 in 2004, the Center for Academic Integrity was again fortunate in attracting Mindy Dalgarn and later Tim Dodd to direct the Center’s operations. Mindy was instrumental in organizing the successful 2004 conference at Kansas State, promoting Academic Integrity consulting by Board members, and launching a student summer internship program. Tim improved CAI’s service to members, increased the size and scope of the international conference, established an “expert registry” of consultants and presenters, and increased CAI’s visibility and prominence in print and broadcast media. Finally, Tim conducted a thorough business analysis that led the Center and the Kenan Institute to re-examine the strengths and weaknesses of their partnership. To that end, Tim organized a “leadership group” composed of founders and past and current presidents--Don McCabe, Bill Kibler, Mary Olson, Jim Lancaster, Patrick Drinan, Mark Hyatt and Katie Meriano—to assess new opportunities for partnerships that would allow CAI to enhance 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 Clemson University’s proposal to relocate the organization to its campus in South Carolina. The Center for Academic Integrity officially moved to its new home at Clemson on July 2, 2007 where it partners with the Eugene T. Moore School of Education, Undergraduate Studies, the College of Business and Behavioral Science, and the Pearce Center for Communication as well as other institutional and community partners. The move to Clemson required that the center change from an independent 501 (c) (3) nonprofit status to a membership organization, operating within the Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University (a nonprofit organization.) Dr. Stephen Satris, who served as interim director, facilitated the reorganization and assisted in the hiring of the most recent director, Dr. Teddi Fishman. The Director of the Rutland Institute, in which the CAI is housed, is Dr. Daniel Wueste.