 | The Cavalier daily Thursday, March 16, 1972 |  |
Effects of Expansion
Yet I would contend that the
evolution of the Honor System at the
University of Virginia during the 1960's
must be viewed primarily against the
background of dramatic annual
increments in enrollment which begin in
the fall of 1963. The nine years from
1962-63 to 1970-71 brought a 124
percent increase in the size of the student
body. The issue of University expansion
emerged as a focal point for discussion
within the University community in the
spring of 1963—never to submerge again
for long, after President Shannon's public
announcement of a prospective
enrollment of 10,000 by 1975. A March
13 Cavalier Daily editorial stated that
"we believe the question of enrollment is
the most serious which faces the
University today." 1965-66 Honor
Committee Chariman George Morison
himself summarized before the
University's Board of Visitors in June of
1965 the potential dangers of an
expansion to 10,000.
The problems involved in
orienting a student body of that size,
in maintaining personal contact, and
in keeping a 'personal' atmosphere
that is so vital in establishing a feeling
for the System, are paramount ones.
In October of 1966 a large
student-faculty group was called into
existence by the Honor Committee to
determine "if the System is sufficiently
well-ordered and well-conceived that it
can stand the rigors of expansion and
growth." And an April 4, 1967 Cavalier
Daily editorial remarked that "The
implications of such a sudden rise [to
12,000 by 1975, announced in February
of 1966]—not to mention Reclor Frank
L. Rogers suggestion of a total enrollment
of 15,000 by 1980 when the newly
acquired Birdwood tract is utilized—are
staggering."
It would be meaningless to debate
whether changing ethical views or
physical growth and expansion have
exerted a greater adverse effect on the
University's Honor System. One must
acknowledge, I think, that the both
forces have worked, separately and in
mutual interaction, to cripple the Honor
System as it existed in the late 1950's and
early 1960's. Certainly the established
forms of social interaction and the
traditional ethical values of a community
cannot survive such dramatic physical
expansion as the University of Virginia
has experienced in the past decade
without broad-ranging adjustment if not
comprehensive alteration. But
historically it has been physical expansion
in conjunction with an increasing moral
and heterogeneity in the student body
which has rendered invalid Hardy
Dillard's "consensus of honor" rationale
for the Honor System, particularly in
view of the stringent single penalty of
permanent dismissal.
| The Cavalier daily Thursday, March 16, 1972 | |