AS A THIRD-year transfer student, I have heard much grumbling about the honor system at my new school. I have read and heard discussions concerning faculty policing of plagiarism, the presumption that students act honorably and a perhaps outdated system. It is strange for me to see and hear this because I came from a tradition of honor and discipline that is arguably a failure in what it intends to accomplish. I am truly excited about this new system with all of its own traditions, imperfections and open debate.
I transferred from the United States Naval Academy whose version of an honor system is called the Honor Concept. Whereas the honor system here is concerned mostly with the classroom, the Honor Concept governed every moment of every day. I acknowledge that honor is vital to the armed services. Trust among soldiers and sailors is at the very core of a successful military. But my intention in comparing U.Va.'s system to the Naval Academy's concept is to show what happens when an institution preaches an ideal but practices something very different.
The first lines of the Honor Concept are, "midshipmen are presumed honorable." That is a flattering expectation. It sounds nice rolling off the tongue, but words are the only place where this applies. In practice, administrators assume midshipmen are liars and cheats, and midshipmen often act accordingly. For example, attendance is taken feverishly at various events as if to suggest that students cannot be assumed present.
A good example of the practice not matching the slogan is X-period exams. Because the Naval Academy has a large core of classes, almost all plebes and youngsters (first and second years) take identical courses with common midterms. The Naval Academy, following an embarrassing cheating scandal a few years ago in an electrical engineering course, mandated that everyone in a core course take these exams at the same time. Hence the X-period was born. Now midshipmen must get up extra early to attend common exams at 6:55 a.m. If you suffer from math anxiety or are just not a morning person, you have a whole new challenge in your quest for academic success at that hour.
I am excited about how professors here administer exams. The idea of sitting on the Lawn or going back to my apartment to type an essay test is foreign to me. The point is that we as a student body are better people because more is expected of us. We have more privileges. In turn, those privileges and expectations augment our human dignity. To do away with an honor system because it is impossible to police or because it may be abused by some lowers the standard and dignity of all involved.
Aside from trusting students to be honest, our honor system's strength also lies in its scope. Honor here is not an impossible reality because its expectations are reasonable. For example, Convocation last week had high attendance. In contrast to standard Naval Academy practice, no one took attendance last Sunday night. My boyfriend, who is a graduate of the Naval Academy, was amazed that so many people showed up when there was no fear of punishment for not coming. At the Naval Academy, he had the job of accounting for 30 people before breakfast, lunch, Wednesday night dinners, drill and parades, football games and lectures. He was a cog in a wheel that accounted for 4,000 people each day.
At the Naval Academy, some accusations of dishonorable behavior came out of questions of attendance. Students were dismissed because of obscure honor offenses. Careers ended for trying to cover for friends who committed youthful acts of indiscretion. Imagine your college education ending because you did not go to Convocation. The concept of honor at the Naval Academy is devalued by being applied to so many situations. Too many rules really mean low expectations and being honorable about them often means suffering severe punishments. Upperclassmen and officers asked me and my classmates where we had been, what had we been doing and who we were with. A game of roulette was played with breaking the rules, lying about it, and trying to get away with it.
I came here with the expectation that I would be treated like an adult. The honor system will protect me and demand much of me in the classroom. At the same time, the principles of the honor system make up a large part of my notion of integrity in general. I am excited about honor at the University.
(Lilien Audrey Wagner is a third-year College student.)
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