This year will mark the 170th year since the murder of a University of Virginia professor that would ultimately give rise to the inception of an Honor System, which, in its present manifestation, relies upon students "simply behaving with the integrity that has come to be expected of a Virginia student" as the self-affirming justification for encouraging the administration of unproctored exams that facilitate the advancement of the dishonest at the expense of the honest.
To place the burden of the administration of fair exams on the students taking such exams is an infringement upon their pursuit of an education unmolested by distracting parallel duties as classroom monitors and honor offense reporters.
When students graduate, they will compete in a world that will not assume that they are uniquely honorable on account of having "worn the honors of Honor." A temporary suspension of such realities may be of benefit to the merchandising efforts of University Guides in promoting a place unbounded by the realities of human nature to the parents of prospective students, but it is a disservice to such students during their tenure at the university.
Of the four in-class examinations I took in the second semester of my first year at the University of Virginia, I witnessed 'dishonorable' activity in half. Consistent with the University's tacit premise that intentionally unwitnessed transgressions may be presumed to have not occurred, I thereafter made a conscious effort to refrain from making any such casual observations during any unmonitored exams for the balance of my time at the university.
The University does not have a monopoly on honest students, but it will have an increasing monopoly on licenses to cheat if it continues to assume that it does.
Michael Kor\nCLAS '04
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