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
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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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