Word: honoring
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Many top schools, including Stanford, Princeton, Wellesley and the California Institute of Technology, have honor codes. So why doesn't Harvard...
...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...
Without an honor code, Harvard remains an institution overtly suspicious of its students. Proctored exams, a practice that would disappear with an honor code, insult the very integrity we are meant to have. The proctors prowl up and down the aisles with the suspicion that we might cheat. Thus, during exams, students are reduced to "potential cheaters" and not considered mature individuals who have gathered to learn. Only one person can go to the bathroom at a time during an exam at Harvard. What kind of trust does this imply the University has in its students? Harvard applicants are accepted...