University of Virginia Library

MWC Surveys Faculty On Honor

By CHRIS DONART

Professors at Mary Washington
College, responding to a recent Honor
Council opinion poll, stated their support
for the Honor System in its academic
function but suggested a clarification of
its social aspect or abandonment of the
social function.

The college's newspaper, The Bullet,
reported November 18 that several
professors would like to see the Honor
System remain an institution at the
college. Other faculty members,
responding to a recent controversy
regarding the system's existence,
"criticize the system and see it as
hypocritical," the newspaper continued.

All professors, according to the poll,
agreed that a situation of mutual trust
existed in the classroom. Some professors
felt that this spirit of trust would be
retained even without the Honor System.

Regarding the system's social function,
several faculty members remarked that
"you cannot legislate morality" with an
academic and social system of honor. One
professor maintained that a system of
academic honor was better if
"self-imposed."

Cornelia Oliver, Honor Council
adviser, stated that proposals to eradicate
the Honor System were "going through
the minds of everybody on the Honor
Council."

Mrs. Oliver said the "anachronistic
aspects" of the system should be
"carefully re-examined."

Commenting that life in a college
community is dependent on some kind of
honor system, History Professor Roger
Bourdon said that survival in that
community is based on mutual trust.