University of Virginia Library

Student Council, Honor System,
Faculty Welcome New Students

The Student Council welcomes
this opportunity to offer its services
to you as a representative legislative
body which works to forward
effectively your ideas to the
administration and to bring them to
full fruition. Our offer of service,
however, is one which must be
reciprocated by you.

As you are certainly aware from
your previous educational
experiences, student government
can be as apathetic or as effectively
vocal as the student body wants it
to be and as they are willing to
make it. As new students you have
inherited a particular debt for the
service of an established student
governing system. Your payment
must be the careful evaluation of
your rights as students and as
people and your total commitment
to the exercise of those rights.

Self-government is the finest
assurance of individual rights. Your
participation in and visible
endorsement of Student Council
activities is a necessity if students
are to show themselves capable of
handling their own affairs. The
22-man Council represents and is
elected from all schools of the
University, but it is the duty of the
students of each school to insist
upon their rights of student
government. With your support, the
Student Council can continue to
represent effectively the ideas of
the student body and to accomplish
their goals.

Thomas Jefferson dedicated this
University to "the illimitable
freedom of the human spirit," but
he was aware, as are we, that such
freedom could never be possible
without responsible
self-government. We offer our
service and ask your support to
demonstrate that student
responsibility.

Honor System

You are about to enter a school
that is unique in many ways from
every other school in the country.
The University of Virginia has a
heritage which is seldom found in
the modern colleges of the day.
It has been able to expand, diversify
and develop to meet the needs of a
modern, educational institution,
but, at the same time, to retain
the classic, traditional concepts of
education which Thomas Jefferson
himself incorporated in his original
plans for the University. Certainly
the most cherished and most protected
of these concepts and the
most important part of our heritage
is the Honor System.

For a 125 years now, the University
of Virginia has been justly
proud of its Honor System. In
September of this year you will
become a part of its traditional
spirit, and the responsibility and
duty for maintaining it will pass to
you. For this reason the Honor
Committee cannot overemphasize the
importance of its orientation program
at the beginning of the year.
You will be living under the Honor
System from the minute you arrive
here, so it is imperative that you
understand as soon as possible what
your responsibility is to the System
and what demands it makes upon
you. Ignorance of the System is not
considered an excuse for a violation.

In a separate letter the Honor
Committee has already welcomed
you to the University and told you
something of our spirit of honor.
We hope that you have been thinking
about the System in these last
few days before you come to
Charlottesville and that you will
use the orientation programs and
informal discussions that come up
in the next few weeks to clear
your mind of any questions or
doubts you have about the System.
Remember that the only reason our
Honor System works is that the
students here today make it work.
It will be up to you and your
classmates as much as anyone else
in the University to see that the
Honor System is maintained.

Reduced to its simplest terms
the Honor System requires that
each student shall act honorably in
all phases of student life. Lying,
cheating, stealing, and breaking
one's word of honor are rightfully
considered violations of the spirit
of honor and are punishable by
permanent dismissal from the University.
This is not an administrative
or a faculty dismissal but rather
an act carried out by the students
themselves. The price we pay for
having so meaningful and effective
a System is that we must not only
live honorably ourselves but also
we must accept the responsibility
of seeing to it that our fellow students
do also. We cannot and will
not allow dishonorable people in
our midst. If we see a person commit
a questionable act, we must
confront him and ask him to explain
his behavior. Should this
explanation be unacceptable, we
must ask him to leave the University.
If a trial is required, it is
held before a committee made up
entirely of students and the decision
of that group is final. No
appeal may be made to anyone,
including the faculty and administration,
outside the student body.
That the faculty has been willing
to accept and enforce the decisions
coming from this entirely student-run
system is a reflection of how
well it works and how much confidence
they have that we can keep
it working so effectively.

As a new student you should
enter the University with a profound
resolution to support the
Honor System and be a gentleman
of honor in the fullest sense
of the word. Only then will you
realize the deep and lasting meaningfulness
of James Hays' words
which thousands of University students
have come to cherish, "I
have worn the honors of Honor.
I graduated from Virginia."

Judiciary

It is a pleasure for me to
welcome you to the University and
in turn to give you a brief
explanation of the Judiciary
Committee, one of our three major
branches of student government.
Since the functions of the
committee are probably less well
known than those of the Student
Council or Honor Committee, and
since the Committee plays an
important role in the maintenance
of discipline on the Grounds, I
hope you will read the following
with care.

The Committee deals with
dent conduct: in particular,
which tends to bring
upon a student for the
University. Reports of improper
conduct are brought to the
attention of the Committee in
many ways, but they primarily
come from the Dean of Student
Affairs, the University police,
administrative officials at schools
"down the road" and to a lesser
degree from students themselves
who have unfortunately been
victimized. There is no typical
Judiciary case, but an example
might be wilfully damaging
property belonging to the
University or to private citizens.

The Committee is authorized to
investigate and try each reported
case of improper conduct, and, if
necessary, to impose penalties
upon the students involved. Such
penalties range from verbal and
written reprimands to various
probations which restrict a
student's activities in certain ways.
For example, a student placed on
social probation is not allowed to
attend University-sponsored parties
or dances for a specified length of
time. In addition, guilty persons are
often required to participate in
some University extra-curricular
activity for a period of time. The
Committee is also empowered to
recommend that a student be asked
to withdraw from the University.

The Committee does not handle
cases involving parking violations,
sex offenses, and breach of
contractual obligations with the
University. These are under the
jurisdiction of the Dean of Student
Affairs.

I hope this brief exposure to the
Judiciary Committee has given you
some insight into its operations. If
any questions arise, please get in
touch with your dormitory
counselor or call the Judiciary
Committee office in Newcomb Hall
at Ext. 3453 between 2 and 4 on
any afternoon.

Greets Students

To come back, after an absence,
to the sight of the University—especially
if at twilight
in the fall when grey mists
change to purple shadows across
the green and red fields and the
far blue mountains—is to have
the heart lift with a strange
exaltation at its beauty. Then in
the joyous bustle of human life
we turn to other things. Old
friends are greeted, fine new
faces people our imagination,
and we exchange tales of summer
excitements. The new student,
even more than the old,
covers with a humdrum manner
the thrill of a new adventure and
wears secretly in his dreams the
nodding feathers of romance.

I want you to see how the
welcome is here, all about you;
in the beauty of the place, in old
memories, in the hearty greetings
of friends, in the lifted
hands of the professors, in the
mingled shouts of the gridiron
and most of all in the indefinable,
inexpressible renewal of the
spirit of Old Mother. By her
vistaed pillars and her storied
arches, through her old traditions,
of which you are to become
a part, the University of
Virginia welcomes you.

I seek to do no more than to
voice this welcome to the new
session to every student, except to
express two thoughts that have
crystallized out of my life at the
University. Here where the love
of honor and truth becomes a
passion, freedom to seek the
truth and courage to maintain
it belong to the spirit of the
place and through the standards
of the past we come to feel the
truth of Robert Louis Stevenson's
words, "Not even God himself
can forgive the hanger back."