<p>Does Rice have an honor code? Does it allow for take home exams (common practice or not?)? If my S leaves his flash drive in a public computer.. what is going to happen? If he leaves a book, a computer, his backpack sitting around in a public area, what is going to happen?</p>
<p>Is there more or less honesty in the colleges? Are there certain schools (engineering, etc) that are more apt to be more respectful of misplaced belongings?</p>
<p>Any thing else on this topic of potential concern?</p>
<p>Yes, Rice has a very prevalent honor code system- many exams are take home (although many aren’t, but most of them are unsupervised (teacher comes in to answer questions, but doesn’t stay to enforce any measures against cheating because it has functioned very well over the years here)). </p>
<p>Based on my experience, the general trend is that it is pretty unlikely for things to get stolen. Due to the closeness between people at the residential colleges, hearing of things getting stolen is rare. While it happens, it happens very infrequently. Leaving things around campus is also not a problem. I accidentally left all of my belongings in the bathrooms over Spring Break and they weren’t even touched. While I understand that having shampoo and other things stolen sounds dumb, it still says something.</p>
<p>A better example of the safety is that many of my friends leave their bags unattended all the time at the library for hours on end (sometimes overnight) and have never had any problems and I leave my bike unlocked pretty often. Same applies for engineering buildings and Rice computers (although almost everybody uses their own computers here). </p>
<p>Honesty is very bigat Rice. I feel people at Rice try very hard to upkeep this in themselves. They see this great welcoming and happy community and really want to contribute to it and keep it this way. We have a high stake in our school and know it! Therefore I think you don’t need to worry at all. Rice is very safe, open, and friendly!</p>
<p>I have to disagree that it is unusual for things to be stolen. My son’s locked bike was stolen on campus last year, and his roommate’s car was stolen from an on-campus parking lot. Neither was ever recovered.</p>
<p>@jdaa, I do not think students are executing the kind of theft that you mention. I will admit that bikes are stolen quite frequently here, and I am not sure who steals them, but I don’t think they are students. Bike racks are out in the open at night, so anyone could steal them. </p>
<p>I second SchoolAdvice in that people will very often leave their bags unattended in the common area of their residential colleges and not have to worry about coming back to find their things stolen. I believe there is a lot of trust between the students, but as for the outside world, not so much.</p>
<p>mogrimoogle, I didn’t mean to imply that student’s were stealing bikes and cars. The OP asked what would happen if personal property was left unattended in a public area and for “any thing else on this topic of potential concern”. My understanding is that bike theft is pretty common on campus, and I thought the OP might like to know about it.</p>
<p>Sorry jdaa, the OP also asked about honesty within the colleges and I wanted to make it clear that it is a safe environment. I do agree with you that bikes are stolen quite frequently, for reasons previously stated.</p>
<p>I don’t believe there is a no-bike policy inside buildings, but don’t quote me on this. I know a couple people who store their bikes in their rooms. As long as the roommate/suitemates don’t mind, I don’t see an issue with this. My roommate has brought her bike into the room on multiple occasions.</p>
<p>There isn’t in dorms etc, however you usually cannot leave a bike in the middle of an academic building.</p>
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<p>Generally yes. Most of the theft is by outsiders on campus such as bike thieves. There have been several cases of laptop theft in the library, people leave it on the table right by the entrance and go get coffee.</p>