A recent study conducted by graduate students from the Education school regarding student participation in and attitude toward the honor system revealed less than 2 percent of the 115 students who reported witnessing an Honor offense in their time here at the University reported said offense. Additionally, of the two students who witnessed an offense, only one reported it and not to the actual Honor Committee but rather to a professor. The resulting backlash has fueled the movement for change in the honor system and affirmed the fact that students rarely report honor offenses.
Many students, especially minorities, feel as if they do not have anything in common with those on Honor and may be inclined to feel uneasy about or unsupportive of the single sanction, which they associate with Honor. The potential solutions to this problem range from increasing Honor’s receptivity to student views through biannual public assemblies students can participate in to express their feelings to having students vote on referenda on honor policies every year.
These solutions could and may work, but they do not address the underlying problem. The underlying problem is that lying, cheating and stealing are happening in large numbers in the first place: 21.7 percent of students reported witnessing an honor offense in this year’s study. This is becoming more of a problem because many of the conditions that existed when the honor code was first implemented have since changed: there is now a larger disparity between the median household income of students when compared to the national average and a larger University enrollment.
These issues can be overcome if the University and Honor specifically stress the importance of integrity. For all of the fanfare and excitement surrounding signing the honor pledge during commencement, there was no intense focus on the importance of personal integrity, but rather a vague attempt at justifying resisting the urge to lie, cheat or steal through tradition. This is a fallacy that often comes into play in the criminal justice system, because a focus on punishing transgressors instead of rehabilitating them can disregard the underlying problem.
This general movement towards reforming punishment standards instead of focusing on the changing character of individual students is wrong and wasteful. Instead, we should focus on improving the integrity of students and trying to make them understand the importance of honor with a lower case “h.” The carrot is a powerful motivator and using it more than the stick would give the University the reputation of being honest and honorable.
To revive honor among students, I propose a mandatory one-credit course taken in the second year that would focus on honor. This course would involve discussion of why honor is important, why it should be maintained at all times and why it is important to fulfill one’s duty to the Honor Committee to maintain its honor. It is important to reinforce the importance of honor considering the fact that it is a relatively central topic during most students’ first years. It is also important to create the community of trust by allowing students to realize others feel the same way about honor as they do so they can try not to become disillusioned with it.
This course would promote critical thinking among students about what honor means to them. Students would finally understand the gravity of such a system and would grasp the actual repercussions of transgressions both personally and professionally.
Honor should be doing more itself to promote the concept of honor with a campaign involving posters and inspirational messages to continuously motivate people to refuse to lie, cheat and steal even when it is easy and opportunities arise.
Honor should also sponsor speakers to come and speak to students about the importance of integrity. The gravitas of a professional athlete or a well-known businessman would show students that integrity doesn’t hinder success, but rather drives it. Professors should also stress it more because it is applicable to all fields.
Honor — with a lower case “h” — is founded on integrity, and instead of focusing on antiquated tradition, we as a University should focus on personal integrity. We should not put all of our stock in a system that tells us not to lie, cheat or steal, instead of simply expecting us not to. Honor in both its institutional and conceptual form is a good conviction because its combination of tradition and personal integrity makes this a community worth having integrity for. We, as members of the community of trust, have made a mistake in the direction of our anger. Instead of focusing on the improvement of punishment of transgressions, we should focus on stopping them from happening in the first place.
Sawan Patel is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.patel@cavalierdaily.com.
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