AS THE only surviving feature from the honor system's inception in 1842, the single sanction remains today as an exceptionally high standard of academic integrity largely unique to the University. Current proponents of the sanction believe it is the best way to maintain a community of trust, raising expectations of student honesty well above contemporary standards. Opponents of the sanction, however, see it as a relic of Southern gentility, a standard which may have been appropriate a century and a half ago but which seems too stringent in 2004. Whether the standard set by the sanction is too tough after 162 years is a debate worth having. However, it is unfortunate that opponents of the single sanction have been unwilling to have it.
Instead, critics of the single sanction continually suffocate this debate with arguments they no doubt believe to be true, but which are founded wholly on their negative perception of the sanction rather than hard evidence. In so doing, they distract from the fundamental question of appropriate standards. They argue, for instance, that a standard as strict as the single sanction discourages students from initiating cases against their peers and ultimately erodes willingness to hold students accountable for their offenses.
While these assertions may seem intuitive to one who truly believes the single sanction is too severe a punishment, there is actually little evidence to support either claim. Case statistics from the past six years indicate that students are held accountable in the honor system at impressive rates, the total number of students leaving the University in that time equaling about 60 percent of those officially accused. In 2002 - 2003 that number approached 90 percent, not including students pardoned for contributory mental disorders.
Similarly, there is little to justify the claim that an overly strict sanction is at fault for discouraging students from initiating cases against their peers. While opponents look at a meager 12 percent of honor cases initiated by students last year and see a student body "morally opposed" to the single sanction, 2002 polling indicates that only a fraction of students would never initiate a case against a peer, and of those, only about 14 percent blame the single sanction for their reluctance. Even more compelling is the simple fact that the University Judiciary Committee, which can levy multiple sanctions, suffers a similar deficiency in student initiations. There may well be a universal problem with student participation in initiating cases, but it has little to do with the severity of the sanction. These criticisms cannot be supported, and they serve only as diversions from the real debate.
One of the more forceful examples of unfair arguments against the single sanction is the oft-repeated claim that it serves as an "academic death penalty." Those who believe the sanction too strict probably do believe this to be true, but in reality the analogy is absurd. The single sanction can only be compared to the death penalty insofar as the honor system, because of the seriousness of the sanction, offers accused students an impressive degree of due process to protect them while in the system. Ultimately, however, the "death penalty" analogy can only be credible if one truly equates earning a degree from another university with death. Convicted students willing to admit wrongdoing enjoy an enormous amount of help from the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs in transferring to other schools, and they are almost always successful.
Given that most of the criticisms leveled against the single sanction are unsupportable and derived from a preconceived negative perception of the sanction, the debate over the single sanction really comes down to a decision as to whether it is worthwhile to maintain an exceptionally high standard of conduct at the University. Many opponents of the sanction would prefer a more lenient system which offers guilty students an opportunity to redeem themselves, believing strongly that the absolute nature of the sanction is out of touch with modernity. However, if their belief is truly accurate, then we should all regret that our generation is no longer able to hold itself to the same standard applied to scores of our predecessors.
When students consider the arguments laid out in this series in support of maintaining the University's traditionally high expectations, it is imperative that they remember the special place that honor holds at the University. One can't help but think that our reverence for honor has much to do with past generations' willingness to continually reaffirm a standard of conduct above and beyond anything they might see in the outside world.
Josh Hess is chair of Students for the Preservation of Honor and a counsel for the honor system.
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