University of Virginia Library

Rotten Pillars

Can you be serious in your
editorial "Take-Home Temptations"?
If someone's honor is as
tenuous as glass so that it is "bound
to give way under the strain" of
take-home tests, then the University's
Honor System is already
resting on rotten pillars. What kind
of honor can one claim who regards
taking a test in the quiet of his
room or of the library as "an
unnecessary and grueling test" of
his honor? An Honor System, it
seems, either rests on honor or it
does not exist. If it must rest on
"honor" in quotes, then it but
makes a mockery of the ideal of
honor and the concept of an honor
system.