Binding a Community Together
Thank you all for allowing me the chance to speak tonight. I remember when I first arrived at Middlebury more than three years ago-walking into Battell, all of the new faces, the new experiences, and the newfound freedom. There was that wonderful, peculiar mixture of thrill and anxiousness. How amazing it was to discover Middlebury; a place to learn; a place to grow as person; a place to have a lot of fun.
In the midst of all of that excitement, I remember hearing about an honor code. Yet, it was at the time a vague thing that I really did not understand. I came from a school that did not have an honor code, and I did not understand just how important the honor code is in making Middlebury what it is, and how important it would be in changing me. I knew what honor meant and I knew what integrity meant, yet I did not know how those principles could come to constitute a community’s code of conduct, its social pact.
Middlebury is special because of the character of its community. While Middlebury is indeed an academic institution, the concept of academics extends well beyond the classroom. We not only learn from our professors’ lectures, we also learn from our debates, discussions, and interactions with each other.
This environment and the many opportunities it affords us as students, hinges on nurturing and encouraging a set of community standards, values and ideals, as is symbolized by our honor code. The Handbook states,
“As an academic community devoted to the life of the mind, Middlebury College requires of every student complete intellectual honesty ...”
As you are now members of this academic community, you not only reap the benefits of the Honor System, it is also your responsibility and obligation as a student to defend it and contribute to its development. What is often forgotten is that the Honor System is your honor system. The Honor System constitution reads, “The Middlebury student body declares its commitment to an honor system that fosters moral growth and to a code that will not tolerate academic dishonesty in the College community.”
It is more than an abstract and static principle; it is a living philosophy you affirm every time you write, “I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment.” That small statement is your word; it is the symbolic bond between you and the rest of the community.
The honor system is so important because to violate it is to not only deprive yourself of the full benefits of the learning experience, but also because it is an offense against your professors, your classmates, against the community. As much as the community is there to help you succeed, its success relies equally upon you.
The attendant of the academic honor system is something akin to a residential or social honor system. While Middlebury does not have an explicit social honor code, you have all tacitly agreed by your coming here to abide by our community ideals and standards. As a general rule of thumb, “Whatever promotes learning and human growth is encouraged by the College; whatever hinders it is opposed.”