FOR AS long as I can remember, my grandmother has displayed in a framed picture case a phrase that has recently become my favorite to quote and to pass around: "Sometimes we forget how far we've progressed and how much we've accomplished."
This passage couldn't be truer. Sometimes we forget how far the honor system has taken the University, changing what it was in 1840 - when Prof. John Davis was shot and killed trying to quiet a group of students - into the proud institution it is today. And sometimes we forget how much the Honor Committee has accomplished within this community, fostering the sense of personal honor and personal duty that is even recognized within the City of Charlottesville.
The honor system, however, has taken a real beating lately. But it's not a lost cause. The Honor System Review Final Report, published last Monday, is the result of many months of work, and is a proposal the University should not dismiss.
Rough times are a part of growing; they build character. But it is disturbing to consider something as sacred to this University as the honor system to be in desperate need of change. The truest measures of strength and character are demonstrated when they're used to overcome stiff challenges. How strong a system of honor can be is a question that the University will answer when examining the proposals that the Review Commission presented in their final report.
No one would doubt that honor and Virginia should be synonymous. But the little things that once made this University so special because of its honor system are very quietly changing. The small changes, like a decline in student and faculty initiated honor cases, demonstrate a growing dissatisfaction that many have in the honor system. These small changes embody the urgency of the situation facing the Committee. Can an honor system really exist when new traditions are even changing a place as traditional as the Lawn?
After three students had their rocking chairs stolen earlier this semester, many Lawn residents now feel compelled to lock their rocking chairs to their doorframes using bike locks. It pains the eye to see such a contrast on the Lawn - white columns decorated with chains and locks - and it is sad to see the lack of faith that students feel in their system of honor.
To add more fuel to this fire, the thieves probably were University students. After all, the chairs were returned promptly after word of their theft was published. The students who took the chairs probably didn't realize that the $250 tab would fall on their fellow student, now deprived of his chair.
Thankfully we live in a community composed of people with morals, who can't ignore the pangs of guilt when they've done something "dishonorable." With or without the honor system, University students intrinsically are honorable people. But how sad it is that honorable people might still steal rocking chairs.
An honor system exists to encourage our community of trust and to ensure that it will persevere by removing members who might act deceitfully, and who would damage the community's trust. Over the decades our honor system has undergone many changes to make it stronger. The time has come once again to make some important decisions.
Last Monday, the commission finally presented its final report to the University community. The release of the report was twice delayed, causing criticism of the Committee, the Commission and the honor system itself.
Those criticisms were in vain.
The 10 member Commission, chosen by the Committee last year, was composed of three current committee members, three past committee members and four University alumni, faculty and administrators.
The Commission calls for a number of changes to our honor system, and most importantly proposes to change the way an honor system is approached by the Committee. The Committee would not exist to accuse or to convict a student. No, a system based on something as intangible as the idea of "honor" would be less judicial and more fact-finding and truth-oriented.
Some of the proposals are controversial, but very intelligent members of this University wrote them, and their central goal is more than just to strengthen the honor system, but to make it a fair and more able body.
Don't miss the chance to speak your opinion, but also, don't voice an opinion that is ill educated. The report can be found at www.cavalierdaily.com. Read it.
I believe that "good things come to those who wait." After two postponements, and months of criticism, the honor system and the University finally have been rewarded with an effective and impressive solution.
Thank you, Review Commission. It's in our hands to approve your recommendations.
(Luke Ryan's column normally appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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