Pag-e 2 THE BATTALION Friday, May 22, 1953 A&M's Honor Code A Hypocrisy U OF VIRGINIA HAS REAL CODE T HE FAULTS and merits of an Honor Code are many. But perhaps the main fault with the one introduced here this spring was that it was not wholly a student project. The main merit was that the students rejected it. Until the time that the stu dents are ready to accept an Honor Code with a backbone and not merely an inviting false-front, A&M will be bet ter off without any hypocrisy of a code. If an Honor Code is needed, it should be one with a firm foundation and not one of a half-way measure. Most im- For the first seventeen years of active life of the institution, a rigid proctor system pi-evailed. During this time, we ai’e told that the general level of the conduct of the high spirited lads who made up the. student body was practi cally riotous in character. It was during this period that a pro fessor was fatally shot by a stu dent in a general brawl. The men were rigorously i watched while taking their examinations and dur ing their other classroom activi ties. Student dissatisfaction with this atmosphere of suspicion con tinued to mount. Honor Pledge Starts In 1842, a wise and eminent Vir ginia jurist and lawyer, the Honor able Henry St. George Tucker, fx-ont the offender and demand his withdi’awl fx-om the Univex-sity or else to exex-cise his right to a trial by the Honox* Committee. It would be a gi'ievious mistake to conceive of the Honor System as merely the substitution of a stu dent police system for one man aged by the faculty. It is a united affirmation of a living principle, a declax-ation of a faith that men who have come together in quest for the ti’uth portant, it must be student in- joined the law faculty of the Uni- spired, developed, worked. vex-sity, and at the instance of x^- px-esentatives of the student body. Sidewalk Scrapings By HARRIET THOMAS IV Battalion Scrapings Editor Orchids go to anyone who To say on® ha s honor means ^ procured the passage of a r t’ has a birthday today. Our nothing. One must show it. solution pi’escxlbing a pledge to best wishes for peace and hap- The following is the speech be signed by all students taking piness in the years ahead to delivered to the first year men examinations and submitting other everyone who was born on by T. Munford Boyd, a pro- written work by which it was this day many years ago. fessor of law and a graduate stated on honor that the student Orchids, belated, to G. E. of the University of Virginia. had der \ ved no assistance £rom any Madeley, whose birthday was in September, 1950. ^ ^ Celebrating the same In it, he explains the work- the Honor System. Later, the 5*. a y was R a y George. Happy ingS of an Honor Code. The pledge was modified to include ohthday, Ray Editors. the giving as well as the i-eceiv- • 0 • ing of aid but was still restricted Speaking of Ray, he received a to classroom woi’k. tremendous allocade at the Former At a still later pex-iod and mind Student banquet a few months ago. you, by the students themselves Hay had just finished a football member of^thiT faculty a~nd talk and noi : ^y faculty action, the season that was a little less than to you as an alumnus or, if you scope of the Honor System was successful—his team missed out please, as an ex-student whose extended to embi-ace all student on the championship — but they privilege it was, when a student activities so that any dishonorable gave him a great tribute. They here, to live six years under that conduct came within its purvxew, said, Unpack . system and that is its scope today. • Like other institutions of learn- J S ? me ° f yo ? r °! der fellow- stu- Judge Otis Miller dropped by ing which have endured through dents will undertake to explain to the office and left us a new born the years, the University of Vir- y° u ^ he details of working of calf. Thanks, Otis. We’ve always ginia has many traditions. Cer- th ® Hon ° r System Code. It should wanted one. The judge— he’s from tainly the noblest of these is her suffice for me to point out to West Texas — has been having Honor System ^ ou ^ ae P°sitive as well as the great success with his cattle ranch, T , . T 1- 11 + . r + .v negative aspects of the system. In in addition to his teaching duties ut I isli e to le er o e other words, the Code says to each at A&M’s journalism department. Honor system merely as a tradi- student not onIy that thou shalt overworked^and i^it^^sag? 1 too n , ot no Y stea ' ! lor chea ^« but Johnny Longley at the water -fi.oo.ionfiir ’r-r.niWoc al ?° that thou shalt not tolerate fountain in the Business Admini- In speaking to you this even ing about the Honor System I want to step out of my role as a frequently connotes some custom wVi^™ Ami lountain 111 tne rsusiness Aamim- or nractice which is followed now °f beis in y ? u J rmdst a\ horn you gtration Building . . . Jim Baty out or piactice wfticn is loilowea now know have lied cheated or stolen. simply because it has been fol lowed for a long time, regardless Demand Withdrawal of its value or even of its intrinsic absurdity. surveying the drill field with his young engineers . . . John Paul Ab bott in the halls of the Academic The duty thus imposed is not to Buildi during . the between clas- rePort an offender to the faculty ges rugh _ _ Wayne Stark up late in the MSC. report an offender to the faculty Vitalizing Force or to some policing body, but as a Though it is more than a cen- member of the Honor System and tury old, the Honor System is to day as it has always been, a liv ing, vitalizing force influencing the lives of those who participate in it and giving character to this University. Some of you have doubtless come here from schools where cheating on quizzes and examina tions is, by a common acceptance of the students, or at least some of them, considered not to be a breach of honor but a legitimate a signatory of its code, to con- Language Composition Course Offered Saw Hershel Burgess, Sid Love less, and Lucian Morgan trying to sell each other insurance. Don’t know who won, but it looked like a lively discussion . . . Les Rich ardson, Ewing Brown, C. A. Bon- nen and the rest of the school board with their heads together. What do you suppose those boys are cook ing up now? J. J. Skrivanek had a bad blister ^ A new English course, on his finger last week from work- practice for those who can “get “Teaching of Lariguage and ing in the garden. College Station away with it.” Composition”, will be offered gardens are coming along in fine I shall not pause to pass cen- for the first time this sum- shape, except for a slight tendency sure on this practice. As mature mer, said Dr. S. S. Morgan, to wash away. But remember last men and women you know in your head of the English department. ^ eai ' v en we weie P ia yi n g 01 hearts that this is worng, that Thig cou num bered 461, is ram ' * there can be no compromise of a study of admin i s t rat ion and ^ T * honorable conduct. teaching problems involved in high Ernest Langford ^ding the If I were asked to give a short school and college courses in com- elevator to the fourth floor of the definition of the Honor System, I position. It will include also or- Academic Building . . . Kubby think it would go something like ganization of the curriculum in Manning gave us a ride to the of this: That it is a high convention English, Morgan said. fice today . . . Roland Bing going among men and women who have rr , 1 c ^ ass * * • Han Boswell out look chosen to seek the truth, by which Th ® c ° urse 1S intended for teach- i n& a t the streets . . . Tom Har it is mutually agreed that no end, ers °( a11 ^ ourses and principals or rington just standing around however important or however de- superintendents confronted with Don’t mean no harm, sireable, will justify the use of Problems of organization and ad- # dishonest means in its attainment, ministration °f their English pio- R a lph Rogers, Dan Russell Student Function gram. Wheeler Barger, and some other T Emw T ehnotse to Senior classification and approv- people from the Agriculture Build . L , . f al of the instructor will be the ing taking a coffee break . . . Bob the faculty but as an alumnus, and ? nl y Prerequisites for this course Cherry eating lunch at the same this is because the Honor System U } s °P ea botb graduate and time we were ... Don Burchard up is in both origin and administra- undergraduate students, said Mor- at North Gate, tion purely a student function. It g an * • did not emanate from the faculty In addition to 461, the English “Model aircraft will warm up tior is it under faculty jurisdic- department will offer 371, 375, and and operate in designated areas tion. This system did not always the usual required English courses, only”.—A&M College Blue Book, exist at the University. he added. page 26. Th e Battalion Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions “Soldier, Statesman, Knightly Gentleman” The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, is published by students four times a week, during the regular school year. During the summer terms, and examina tion and vacation periods. The Battalion is published twice a week. Days of publications are Tuesday through Friday for the regular school year, and Tuesday and Thursday during examination and va cation periods and the summer terms. Subscription rates $6.00 per year or $.50 per month. Advertising rates furnished on request. Entered as second-class matter at Post Office at College Station. Tex- •e under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1870. Member of The Associated Press Represented nationally by National Advertising Services, Inc., at New York City. Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all news dispatches cred ited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Rights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved. News contributions may be made by telephone (4-5444 or 4-7604) or at the editorial office room, 202 Goodwin Hall. Classified ads may be placed by telephone (4-5324) or at the Student Activities Office, Room 209 Goodwin Hall. JERRY BENNETT, ED HOLDER Harri Baker Psgfgy Maddox CO-EDITORS City Editor Women’s News Editor Today's Issue Manage Editor Bob Bori.kia 'jfiwt EMitors must and will live honorably in all phrases of their activities. It stands for the proposition that only honorable men are free men; that the liar, the cheat, and the thief are eternally fettered in the toils of their own perfidy and as hounded by an inescapable con science that for them the pursuit of truth is intellectually impossible. In Comparable Climate Can there by any doubt that the mutual trust engendered by this code of honor provides an incom parable climate for intellectual achievement ? As was recently said by one of the great statesmen of our times as he nears the end of a long and useful career of public service, the Honorable Henry L. Stimson, “Honor begets honor, trust begets trust, and faith begets faith.” In preparing to talk to you this evening I read again an address on the same subject delivered by a late distinguished Dean of the Engineering School of the Univer sity, Dr. William M. Thornton, be fore the Association of Prepara tory Schools of Southern States at its annual meeting in 1906. This passage impressed me be cause its time-free applicability: “The great malady of our mod ern times is the adoration of the winning side. In the business world to be rich at whatever cost to body and soul; in the political Avorld to be powerful whatever the price in sincerity and faith; in the social world to lead, through what ever sloughs of ignoble pleasure and brainless folly—^these are the manias of the life of our day.” Challenge Today That was descriptive of life in 1906 as viewed by Dr. Thornton in relation to the principles of honor governing human conduct. Perhaps at no time in history have these same principles been so blatantly challenged as they are today, with eight hundred million people domi nated by a ruling philosophy which extols the practice of deception in the ruthless pursuit of an end which is preconceived by it to the good. Although most of you have come to Virginia without any previous Oceanography Awards Fifteen Fellowships familiarity with the Honor Sys tem, you are, nevertheless, im bued with the principles of free dom and fairplay which have made America great, and I now suggest to you that our Honor System is essentially within the best Ameri can tradition. Have you ever taken the trouble to read and ponder the closing sen tence of the Declaration of Inde pendence penned by the founder of this University? ‘Our Sacred Honor’ “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance upon the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” I believe that the position of these words was no accidental; that it represented an intentional cres cendo. For a patriot the pledge of life may be no more than is ex pected. The pledge of his fortune may be dearer because it involves the fortune of others. The pledge of his sacred honor is the ulti mate. At the time of your matricula tion you were asked if you believed in the Honor System, and by your presence here you attest that you do believe in it. Be sure that your belief is sincere and untarnished by reservations. To quote again from the autobiographical work of Mr. Stimson: “The only deadly sin I know is cynicism. You believe in the Honor Sys tem now. I confidently predict that you will one day in speaking of it find yourself able to paraphrase the words of the famous French scientist, Henri Fabre. When ask ed, “M. Fabre, do you believe in God?” he replied, “No, I do not believe in God. I see God in my work every day.” When you have had the opport unity of living under the Honor System you will see it work, and you will perceive in undeniable terms the influence it exerts upon your life and the lives of those around you, while you are students and likewise in the world of af fairs for which you are now pre paring. Fifteen fellowships and as- sistantships totaling $26,750 have been awarded by the Oceanography Department for 1953-54. They were made available through the A&M Research Foun dation. The United Gas fellowship in engineering oceanography, which provides $3,000 for research in the engineering phases of ocean ography, was awarded to Roy El lis of Danville, Ky. Charles M. Proctor of Madison, W. Va., now beginning his second year of study toward a Ph D de gree, received the Dow Fellowship in chemical oceanography. This is a grant of $2,000 form the Dow Chemical Co. of Midland, Mich., and Freeport. Assistantships range in amount from $1,300 to $2,400. In addition, two recommendations for Graduate School teaching assistantships were made. The research assistant- ships are for half-time work on government and industry-sponsor ed research investigations conduct ed by the department through the Research Foundation. Two foreign students are also recipients of fellowships. They are Poornachandra Rao, a geophy sicist from Andhra University, Waltair, India, and Chang Wen Hsuan, a chemistry major from Taipeh, Formosa. Others receiving graduate as sistantships are Gordon Resch, bachelor of science from Sturgeon Bay, Wis.; Warren Dannenburg, bachelor of science from Bristol, Tenn.; David Miller, master of science from Hamden, N. H.; Frank Moon Jr., bachelor of science from La Habra, Calif.; George Reynolds, master of science from Decatur, Ill. John Wise, master of science from Durham, N. H.; William Bradley, bachelor of science from Big Spring, Neb.; Randolph Blum- berg, master of science from San Antonio; Joe Creager, bachelor of science from Wichita Falls. Julius Marcus, bachelor of science from Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rudolph Savage, bachelor o f science from Williard, N. C., and Jerome Stein, master of science from New York City. Dr. Dale F. Leipper, head of the oceanography department, said additional assistantships may be available in the summer. 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