The Community of Us
Author: Derrick Wang (College '20) | February/11/2019
Just as the student body of the University of Virginia has changed dramatically over the course of its history, so has the Honor System grown and expanded. Over the course of 176 years, the Honor System has evolved from its roots as an institution for the idealized “Southern gentlemen” into a value system that embraces students of all backgrounds.
The Honor System, like the University of Virginia, began as an institution dedicated to a specific kind of student. The first generation of students at the University were almost all young white men from wealthy Southern families. In this environment, the concept of “honor” was intimately tied to the idea of being a proper Southern gentleman. Even before Honor Pledge was created in 1842, students frequently got into fights over perceived insults to their personal honor, including physical altercations with other students, professors, and enslaved laborers. Students took their personal honor very seriously - being dishonorable would bring shame to oneself and one’s family. The original Honor Pledge took advantage of this strong sense of honor by forcing young men to pledge to not cheat on their own honor. Similar pledges to not drink before dances or gamble with underclassmen became popular in the years afterwards.
For many generations, this view of honor persisted. Being honorable was more than not lying, cheating, or stealing, but instead included a whole code of behavior for young upper-class white men. Behavior like public inebriation, cheating at cards, or insulting women were considered dishonorable and unbecoming of students governed by the Honor System. This particular definition of “honor” was deeply tied to the Southern culture of the student body - in 1941, one student lamented in the Cavalier Daily that the increasing number of “Northern scum” attending UVA were degrading the University by failing to adhere to the Honor System. Coeducation and integration would seriously challenge this interpretation of honor and require the Honor System to expand its idea of an honorable student.
While women were able to take certain courses such as education or nursing at the University during the first part of the 20th century, they were generally excluded from the Honor System and other male-dominated areas of student life. For example, in 1938 the Honor Committee ruled that women could not serve on the Committee, despite appeals from women in the School of Education. The Honor Committee recommended against coeducation in a 1968 report, arguing that according to an academic study, student-run honor systems were less effective at schools with both men and women. Despite this history of exclusion, after the University became fully coeducational in 1970, women became active participants in the Honor System with the first female chair, Nancy M. Lyons, elected in 1981.
Racial integration was a long and often painful process at UVA. The first black graduate students began attending in 1950 after a successful lawsuit by Gregory Swanson. Through the 1950’s and 1960’s, the number of black students slowly increased as the school slowly desegregated. The Honor System became part of the ongoing racial debates at the University during this period. While ostensibly the rules against lying, cheating, and stealing made no distinctions of race, in practice black students often faced threats and discrimination through the Honor System. In one incident after integration, a black medical student received an anonymous note with a racial slur threatening that the Honor System existed to kick students like him out of UVA. Survey data shows that in the early days of integration, black students and white students had extremely different perceptions of the Honor System’s effectiveness and fairness, with black students much more likely to distrust the Honor System’s ability to fairly judge accused students. This mistrust and fear of discrimination was often borne out by the disproportionately high number of black students, especially student-athletes, who were accused of honor offenses. The Cavalier Daily reported in 1988 that “statistics for the last year show that 29.7 percent of honor accusations are made against black students, a number which is disproportionately higher than the approximately eight percent of blacks attending the University.” This issue, known as “spotlighting,” remained a highly contentious and difficult for the Honor Committee for decades.
Even minority leaders within Honor have suffered for their service. In 1977, Ken Easley, the first black chair of the Honor System, was forced to resign after a racially-motivated smear campaign for, among other things, "[ignoring] social obligations... and missing cocktail parties." Fake doctor’s notes were dropped around Grounds implying that Easley was mentally ill, undermining his chairmanship and eventually forcing his early exit after enormous pressure from other students. Jimmy Fang (Engr '95), an Asian-American chair of the Honor System, received an anonymous postcard reading "... you might trying [sic] signing up for a basic English grammar course. See what diversity has brought to 'The' University?". Despite the discrimination that minority leaders often faced, the Honor Committee and other student government organizations have continued to have more leaders from under-represented minority groups, including in 1991 when both the Student Council president and Honor chair were African-American for the first time in history. The creation of the Community Relations and Diversity Advisory Committee also marked the shifting priorities of the Honor Committee in dealing with issues relating to minority students.
The Honor System has changed significantly from its early days as an informal culture of Southern gentility, which emphasized the personal honor of young wealthy men. The immense demographic changes at the University have demanded equally large changes in the culture of the Honor System. While the Honor System was used by some in the 20th century to justify excluding racial minorities and women who could not live up to the white Southern gentleman ideal, the institution has changed immensely in the intervening years. Today’s Honor Committee seeks to build on the progress of past Committees by increasing engagement with underrepresented communities, addressing issues of spotlighting especially with international students, and creating a substantive Community of Trust to which all students can belong.
References
[1] Barefoot, C. (Spring, 2008). The evolution of honor: Enduring principle, changing times. University of Virginia Magazine, Retrieved from http://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_evolution_of_honor#1825
[2] Center for Survey Research at UVA. (1993). Report of Results: Survey of Multicultural Experiences and Attitudes of Undergraduates at the University of Virginia.
[3] University of Virginia Task Force on Afro-American Affairs. (1987). An Audacious Faith: Report of the Task Force on Afro-American affairs.
[4] Wagoner, J. (1986, Summer). Honor and Dishonor at Mr. Jefferson's University: The Antebellum Years. History of Education Quarterly. Vol. 26(2). Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/368735
[5] Barnes, B. (1977, January 29). Bitter dispute is raging in U.Va. honor panel. Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1977/01/29/bitter-dispute-is-raging-in-u-va-honor-panel/3909e7d1-711d-4b65-8722-18daaa8edc5c/?utm_term=.729a509aa990