Word: coded
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Harvard has never had an honor code. As students, we are supposed to be honorable without having to formalize our integrity with signature. Unformalized, we can assume that we are moral and avoid the question: Could Harvard students handle a system that demands the full-fledged commitment to integrity that an honor code requires...
...honor code generally demands two things: one, that students do not act dishonorably; and two, that they turn in others who they observe violating number one. (The second clause varies from campus to campus; sometimes it is even omitted). Students sign a pledge to uphold these two conditions upon admission to the college and thereafter live according to the honor code...
...asked Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 whether he thought an honor code was a good idea. He responded in an e-mail that he thinks it is unnecessary: "Our understanding is that in registering at Harvard students agree to abide by the rules of the community they are voluntarily entering. It is not clear why a special signed agreement of another kind would be needed, or would add anything...
Dean Lewis's statement, while on the surface sensible, fails to reach the heart of the issue. An honor code at Harvard would instill a sense of integrity in the community and would help foster an atmosphere in which students and faculty could fully trust one another. To say that signing a pledge of honor is simply a formality is incorrect. An implied commitment to honesty is one thing. Actually putting one's signature to paper is quite another because it places the onus on the individual to be moral because it is the right thing to do, not because...
President Neil L. Rudenstine, who has been spent a total of 24 years at Princeton and 14 years at Harvard, gave an insightful look into the issue of an honor code in a personal interview. When asked about the honor code at Princeton, which was instituted over 100 years ago, he said, "It was instilled and created when there was a crisis; it created a tradition.... Whether [a similar crisis] exists here or not is a real question." But when asked about the difference between Harvard and Princeton, the president responded that he "never felt any particular worry at either...