LET'S TALK more about whether the honor system is dead. In this space last week, I made the argument that it is. I claimed the time has come to stop pretending our honor system still works and move on to focus on other positive aspects of the University.
Honor is important enough to dwell on for two weeks in a row. I want to clarify why I think honor is dead - to respond to my critics and hopefully provoke more of them. If you disagree with me, do so vocally. Let's make this discussion meaningful.
The e-mails I received about last week's column - almost all from alumni - show an interesting trend. The strongest defenders of the honor system seem to be the oldest alums. Now, maybe that's just because alumni have more time to write me e-mails. But the feedback I get on other columns doesn't suggest that's true. My sense is alumni reacted so negatively to this particular column because the honor system really did work when they were here - much better than it does now. If that's true, why doesn't honor work anymore? What has changed?
The crucial change hasn't been in the Honor Committee, although it has made numerous improvements to the system. The important change has been in the community upon which the honor system acts. In the past few decades, the University has grown significantly and has become dramatically more diverse. Those changes have made this place better in ways we all take for granted on a daily basis.
But the tradeoff for that is the student body isn't as tight, homogenous and buddy-buddy anymore. In general, that's a good thing. But it does mean we can't know each other as well. And impersonality works against the honor system. People find it much easier to lie to, cheat and steal from someone if they don't know him or her - if they think of the person they're directly hurting as an anonymous stranger instead of as someone they know and care about.
The world outside the University has been getting bigger and more impersonal, too. We live in a difficult age - one that presents greater moral challenges than perhaps any that has come before. Kids grow up with Cinemax as a parent. Violence, profanity and sex have become so common in our culture that many of us don't even notice them anymore. Positive role models have become almost invisible.
All those things affect honor, because honor is something internal. It's something you have because of who you are, not something that is forced upon you. Honor is what you do when no one is looking; it's not what you do when you think you might get caught. The Honor Committee can't teach or create honor, it can only reinforce and strengthen whatever honor is already present.
The conditions have been present for honor to fade. But has it? I ask you merely to look around this community and to be honest with yourself. Do you feel safe? Do you feel trusted? Do you feel trusting? Would you think twice about leaving a laptop unattended, in full public view?
I came to the University wanting to believe in honor. I loved the idea of being able to trust. I bragged about it to my friends at other schools. But the longer I've been here and kept my eyes open, the less I feel I have to brag about. I see lying, cheating and stealing all around me. I've been lied to, cheated on and stolen from.
Some may accuse me of not being fair, and remembering only the bad things. That's absolutely true, and it should be. Each dishonorable act does more to harm the honor system than each honorable act does to help it.
Honor is fragile. It takes a cast of several thousand to maintain and only a few to break. It takes every member of this community - past, present and future - to maintain the idea that the University of Virginia is synonymous with honor. It takes only a few to disprove that notion.
Perhaps your experience here has been different from mine. Perhaps no one has ever done anything to make you feel like it's dishonest to claim you live in a "community of trust." But it does feel that way to me.
Does that mean all hope is gone, that everything the University stands for is dead? Absolutely not. We can choose to define this place - for ourselves and for those in the outside world - in a number of ways. It's time to pick something besides honor as the most defining element of the University.
I love this school and this place; they are major parts of who I am. I'm proud of much of what the University is, of many of the things, people and experiences that comprise it. If it was entirely up to me, I would put honor quietly to bed and begin to promote our academics, our student organizations and our rich history as symbols of the University. But it's not up to just me - it's up to all of us. So you decide, and be honest: Does Honor still work? Do we live in a community of trust? Or is it time to pick a new school mascot?
(Bryan Maxwell's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at bmaxwell@cavalierdaily.com.)
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