The Cavalier daily :: Friday, March 2, 1973 :: University of Virginia Library

The Honor System is an entirely personal
phenomenon. It is and will always be subject
to the whims and idiosyncrasies of individual
interpretation. Thus, even in the era of the
'Old U' it was not a packaged concept
digested whole by 'coat and tie men' in some
sort of secret ritual presided over by their
esteemed 'counselor.' Were this the case the
University's Honor System have long since
succumbed to the pressures of a new era in
the development of the University. The
tensions of the late Sixties and early Seventies
have been listed often enough to have become
hackneyed indeed to those who were forced
to live through them as well as read about
them.

The key fact, of course, is that the System
has survived. But more importantly, the
System is not holed up in the Rotunda or
Pavilion VIII or even Newcomb Hall's fourth
floor. Its benefits are still visible on the
Corner, at Memorial Gym and in the
classroom.

The black box–though longer due to
increased explanatory material–still appears
periodically in the lower corner of The
Cavalier Daily–a reminder that the System
continues to function.

The Honor System does not continue
blindly, however, perpetuated from year to
year by mere custom. It must be constantly
watched and pondered over by each year's
committee. That committee must combine
concern for the University community with
concern for the individuals who compose it,
wisdom to understand the System's abiding
premises with tolerance and flexibility to
necessary change.

Obviously, the student voter must
recognize yet another responsibility in
choosing wisely in next month's elections.
Each officer in all of the University's 10
schools will make his mark upon the 1973-74
committee. Yet the selection of the best
leaders is never a guarantee of the Honor
System's continued health and well-being, for
it depends most of all on the preservation of a
very fragile subsistence—a sense of
community.

The majority of accusations of this year's
committee have involved upperclass students
living off-Grounds and more and more
upperclass undergraduates are forced to live
off-Grounds with each passing year.
Inevitably, we must ask what could tie the
average student who comes to the central
Grounds only to attend classes to any sense of
a shared bond.

Thus it seems imperative that we "make a
commitment to housing," in the words of
Honor Committee Chairman Gordon
Peerman. The System can no longer afford for
residential colleges to remain a dream in the
minds of all those who have visited Yale at
one time or another and a vague architectural
drawing in the Office of Planning.