University of Virginia Library

Procedural Revisions

The 1967-68 Honor Committee, under
the able chairmanship of Pete Gray,
initiated two procedural revisions
indicative of a new "emphasis on fairness
to the accused" in honor trials; published
a pamphlet attempting to clarify what
constitutes plagiarism; grappled with
long-standing problems in the Library and
within the sphere of athletics; and
devoted its final attentions in the spring
to pondering the possible effects of
coeducation on the Honor System.
Controversy over the question of transfer
of a student athletic cards and of
admission to athletic contests of students
who have forgotten their athletic cards
had been growing since the mid-1950's,
and student-administration cooperation
over several years led to the distribution
in September of 1967 for the first time of
plastic-covered photo—I.D. cards, which
in turn led to the establishment in the
spring of 1968 of a student vouching
system for admission to athletic contests.
The problem of books "disappearing"
from Alderman Library had achieved
significant proportions at least by 1956;
and the consistent worsening of the
situation from the time culminated with
the institution in February of 1968 of the
present library check-out system.
Whether such a check-out system was
necessary because of a failure of the
Honor System to operate in the Library is
still a matter of debate. In May, 1968,
twelve-page study entitled "Report of the
Honor Committee on the Possible Effects
of Coeducation on the University of
Virginia Honor System" was based almost
entirely on the empirical study Student
Dishonesty and Its Control in College
conducted by William J. Bowers of
Columbia University and "generally
recognized as the most comprehensive
and authoritative work now existing of its
kind." The Honor Committee Report
reached a definite conclusion:

In a letter dated February 4, 1969,
1968-69 Chairman Larry Attaffer
characterized his Committee's approach
to the System:

The 1968-69 Honor Committee was
deluged with legalistic critiques of the
System, engaged in intensive
self-evaluation in the form of open
hearings and a small random sample poll,
and witnessed in the spring the most
highly publicized and hotly contested
campaigns for the presidency of the
College in the University's history to that
date. Attaffer's Committee never seems
to have questioned seriously the viability
of the single sanction, and their

deliberations found expression in the
decisions of May, 1969 to restrict the
Systems scope to Charlottesville-Albemarle
County and to exclude lying
for liquor in toto from jurisdiction.

The 1968-69 Committee was from its
assumption of office in a position of
being "damned if it did and damned if it
didn't" with regard to changes in the
System. The spring, 1969 College office
elections clearly demonstrated the deep
divisions of opinion within the student
body concerning the Honor System.
These campaigns were unusual in that an
independent candidate challenged the
customary two candidates from the
fraternity-oriented political caucuses
Skull and Keys and Sceptre Society; and
that 70.5 percent of a College enrollment
of 3455 cast ballots in the two-day
elections; while during the previous
decade College officer elections had been
determined each year by 40 to 50 percent
of the College's enrollment. But the
long-term significance of the spring, 1969
campaigns lay not in the challenge of an
independent candidate per se (in 1959
there had been a three-way race for the
College presidency, and the independent
challenge had been defeated by three
votes), but in the fact that for the first
time a candidate deeply opposed to the
status-quo was making a serious bid for
election. A March 2, 1956 Cavalier Daily
editorial had characterized the attitude

toward elections to the Honor Committee
which prevailed until 1969:

Yet in April of 1969 anti-traditionalist
independent Charles Murdock declared
himself to be in favor of "more
'court-room type' procedure", restricting
the System's scope to the legalistic
definition of "legitimate University
interests," and the College President's
being a political activist. Murdock
garnered 35 percent of an electorate of
2438, although Skull and Keys nominee
Whit Clement did win the election with a
44.5 percent plurality.