University of Virginia Library

Self-Righteous

But most important, The Honor
System is intolerably self-righteous.
If a person makes even a small
mistake, he is given the boot,
presumably because honor cannot
suffer the slightest tarnish. The
student is sent into the world with
his reputation scarred and his
future threatened. There is no
chance for sorrow, no attempt at
rehabilitation, no correlation of the
punishment to the crime. The
system is simply unmerciful. In the
courts of the United States, such a
penal attitude would surely be
unconstitutional; in a supposedly
enlightened community, it is
backward-looking and offensive to
human dignity. As a result, the
scheme breeds hypocrisy in the
student body, causing many pupils
to reject it. Though they have
pledged their allegiance to The
Code, these students will not report
violations which are not deserving
of expulsion. Even the system's
highest judging body, The Honor
Council, sometimes resorts to
returning innocent verdicts in cases
where guilt is apparent but
culpability small. The scheme, then
is destructive in its penalties and
breeds inner rejection in those who
must outwardly embrace it.

Therefore, the time has come
for a remarking of the legal system
at the University. The Honor
System should be scrapped, and in
its place a code erected which
would penalize misdeeds according
to their culpability. Reporting of
major violations, such as cheating,
might be required of everyone; but
it would be left to the individual to
decide whether he wishes to spy on
small infractions. A judiciary like
the one that now exists would
decide the fate of wrongdoers.
Under such a code, violators would
be treated fairly, penalties could be
melted out for all misdeeds, and
students would be free to develop
their own sense of honor.

The Honor System should be
given 24 hours to get out of town.