University of Virginia Library

Honor System Assumes Integrity

student norms and evolving student
standards of conduct. It demands
simply that students at the
University "act honorably in all
their relations and phases of
student life." In 1971 the Honor
System compromises, in essence, an
informal agreement among students
that they will tolerate no lying,
cheating, or stealing. And it applies
only to Charlottesville and
Albemarle County or wherever a
student presents himself as a
member of the University
community. To keep the system
viable the Honor Committee must
constantly re-evaluate the
consensus of student opinion on
matters of intolerable conduct. For
the Honor System can stand only as
long as it represents a consensus.

Why does the Honor Code
center ultimately on cheating,
lying, and stealing rather than
infractions of other
universally-recognized standards of
decency? This flows, I suspect,
from one essential principle that
should govern all human
relationships. No one has the right
to demand privileges that cannot be
accorded to all except at the price
of creating a highly disorderly and
fundamentally immoral society.
Special privilege other than that
earned or required by the general
interests of society is destructive of
human values. Anyone who cheats,
lies or steals attempts to achieve
some objective at the expense of
others. He or she is assuming the
right to special privilege and one
totally unearned. Such charges
cannot be leveled generally at the
breaking of University and
community regulations. Where the
choice between accepting the
punishment for a rule infraction or
behaving honorably, honor always
comes first. Honor thus becomes in
large measure the rejection of
special rights and privileges in the
interest of greater personal
satisfaction and the maintenance of
a free environment.

Enforcement

But the Honor System requires
more than adjustment; it also
requires enforcement. That
enforcement rests solely in the
hands of the student body. The
Honor Committee which is central
to the Honor System is elected by
the students and is in no way
responsible to the faculty or
administration. Still the Honor
Committee is not the agency which
enforces the system. It does not
seek out offenders and bring them
to trial. It sits as a court of appeal
for those accused by other students
but who reject accusation. The
guardians of the system are all
students of the University who have
pledged to uphold the system and
to confront any student suspected
of cheating, lying, or stealing.

Community Integrity

More than universities generally
the University of Virginia is a
community, made such by its
Honor System. No community can
protect itself from internal assault
unless its members uphold its
integrity. The Honor System,
because it implies a maximum of
trust, is especially vulnerable to
cheating. Its very vulnerability
makes the system all the more
precious and demands the vigilance
and devotion of all students. The
Honor System can work only to the
extent that students are honorable
and will assume the disagreeable
obligation to accuse those whom
they believe guilty of any infraction
of the Honor Code and compel
their departure from the University.

Direct Accusation

Turning in a fellow student is
not playing the role of an informer,
for the accusation is direct and thus
requires the highest courage. The
Honor System demands honest
relationships among all members of
the academic community, and any
creeping doubt that students are
worthy of absolute trust will bring
the entire system crashing to the
ground. There is no place at
Virginia for students—completely
tolerated by their fellows at most
universities of the United
States—who boast openly of their
success in cheating against a
professor.

In matters of Honor Code
enforcement students can in no
measure rely on the faculty. A
faculty member might question a
student suspected of dishonesty in
the writing of a paper or
examination. He might bring the
evidence of wrongdoing in his
possession to the attention of
one—preferably two—students. Or
he might bring the matter to the
attention of the Honor Committee
itself. But any formal accusation
must come from the students
themselves.

That the Honor System
continues to function suggests that
the student body overwhelmingly
accepts, observes, and attempts to
enforce the standards of honor
against the few who from time to
time violate the fundamental
precepts of the Honor System.
There are probably fewer violations
of honor at the University of
Virginia than any other school in
the country.

There is only one penalty under
the University's Honor
System dismissal from the
University. There are no lesser
penalties available for mitigating
circumstances. The Honor Code on
cheating, lying, and stealing is
absolute; it permits no compromise.
Nor does it provide for a second
chance. What safeguards the
student against injustice is the
Honor Committee's demand for
evidence that demonstrates beyond
a doubt the breach of the Honor
Code and the requirement that 4/5s
of all committee members present
vote for conviction and dismissal
from the University. Beyond that
what justifies the single sanction is
the system's narrow scope.

At the University of Virginia the
environment is one of freedom and
trust; it exists that way because,
through almost 130 years,
successive generations of students
have captured the University's spirit
and have assumed the obligation to
live honorably even when they
could do otherwise. They must
know that success built on deceit is
ephemeral. Integrity still governs
all satisfactory and lasting human
relationships. The most destructive
part of dishonesty is what it does to
oneself, especially when the
dishonesty was made easy by the
trust of others. It matter little that
University of Virginia students are
not and never have been paragons
of virtue. What matters is
fundamental honesty. It is this that
creates a congenial, free, and
productive community which
encourages a maximum of personal
fulfillment.

Personal Integrity

All human relationships at the
University of Virginia assume the
existence of personal integrity
among students and between
students and faculty. Here every
person's word is as good as his
bond. That is why students are not
policed during examination. This
spirit of mutual trust underwrites a
way of life that is worth preserving.
For it permits a climate of freedom
and independence while it
promotes the search for truth.
From life based on honor grows
other virtues such as forthrightness,
courtesy, and good manners.