University of Virginia Library

I am writing this letter to
clear up a few questions and
misconceptions Mr. Henggeler
brought up in his letter of
December 15 concerning the
Honor System.

First of all, an act is never
"wrong per se" under the
Honor System. The Honor
Committee views each offense
and its unique set of
surrounding circumstances
separately. No precedents are
recorded from the decisions the
Committee has made on cases
in the past, but rather each
offense is judged totally on its
own individual merits.

The Honor System has no
set of codified offenses. Lying,
cheating, and stealing are
simply general guidelines and
are not at all inflexible
"rules... (like) the Ten
Commandments." The System
is in no sense unalterably and
rigidly defined as Mr. Henggeler
implies.

Charlottesville, Albemarle
County, and any place where a
student acts thinking that
reliance will be placed on his
status as a University student
are the geographic bounds of
the Honor System. The city
and county lines are simply
listed in an attempt to outline
the places in which a student is
considered to be a student, and
where therefore reliance is
placed on him because of his
student status.

If a student is in Fluvanna
County and has not told
anyone that he attends the
University, then the people
extend no special reliance on
the person's being a student.
Therefore, if he lies, cheats, or
steals in Fluvanna, the act has no
effect on his status at the
University.

The Honor Committee poll
taken last spring has now been
fully analyzed and a complete
report is being given to the
Committee today. The results
of the poll will be published in
full at the beginning of the
second semester in The Cavalier
Daily issue devoted to the
Honor System.

To quote a few statistics
from the poll, 93% of the poll
respondents believe that an
honor system has a place in the
University community. 77%
agree that the Honor System is
in keeping with their own
ethical beliefs. 74% feel that
lying, cheating, and stealing
should be the scope of the
system, and 64% replied that
the Honor Committee should
handle all cases of stealing. In
no place in the poll can I find
any indication that "60% of
the student body does not
support the code."

Mr. Henggler's letter and Mr.
Carmona's letter of December
13 are apparently concerning
the same offense. A student
was dismissed from the
University for shoplifting last
week. The dismissal was not in
any way a comment on the
character of the student in
question. It was an affirmation
that the dismissed student
succumbed to temptation and
violated the community spirit
of honor.

All communities must set
some minimum standards of
conduct by which a member of
that community must abide.
The standards set by the
present-student generation here
at Virginia are that lying,
cheating, and stealing with the
intent to benefit at the expense
of another constitute
infractions that are considered
dishonorable. Mr. Carmona's
friend violated these
community standards and was
dismissed.

All students attending the
University enjoy the advantages
resulting from the atmosphere
of mutual trust engendered by
the Honor System. The Honor
System is run by the students
and it is the direct result of
each student's individual
morality being applied to the
University community. The
only reason there is an Honor
System here at Virginia is
because a majority of students
support it.