Blog Archive » Honor Code

(Apologies to Brewer & Shipley who wrote the song… "One Toke Over the Line")

The news is full of People Who Should Know Better Behaving Badly….

There's that photo of Michael Phelps and the bong.  Really, what was he thinking?  Just doing what kids do?  Not at age 23.  Not with 8 Olympic medals around his neck and millions of dollars in corporate sponsorships to support his lifestyle forever.  I heard a commentator on the radio this morning decrying the person who sent the photo to the media, as if outing the Phelps toke is worse than the smoke itself.   Not!   People in the public eye should know that there's no such thing as a private indiscretion.   I don't buy the "sports hero" mania — they just play games, folks, it's not brain surgery or fighting for the country or raising children well — but still, famous athletes and other celebrities should be aware that the public does hold them to a higher standard of conduct.   Children do emulate the people they admire. Full Article

Plagiarism has ruined yet one more career. Such an old story, yet it must be retold again and again.

This time, a top White House aide to President Bush is the culprit. Special Presidential Assistant Tom Goeglein admitted he used somebody else's written material for a column he wrote in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. Goeglein has resigned. Subsequent investigations are revealing more than one instance of plagiarism. Indeed, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel now reports that 20 of 38 columns that Goeglein wrote contained plagiarized material. Full Article

On the same day we learned that numerous baseball "greats" achieved their glory through cheating, I had a conversation with some academic colleagues about a problem that occurred during a freshman exam. Seems that some freshmen were using notes when they shouldn't have in the unproctored exam room. So, now we consider proctors. This came on the heels of an earlier problem with text messaging in exam rooms, leading to a ban on cell phones in exams.

What is this world coming to? That's a very old question. I can still hear the despair in Sister Bridgetta's voice — my kindergarten teacher, who, upon catching me and some other 5-year-old girls in a lie, gave us a stern lecture that ended with a rhetorical question: "Am I being true or am I being false?" Being five, I had no idea what the word "false" meant, but it sounded like a much more important word than the simple 'true,' so I replied, with bravado, "You are false, Sister." The consequent long months of recovery from that vocabulary fiasco taught me a whole lot about what is true, and what is false. I managed to escape kindergarten in one piece, but now, 50 years later (can that be true?) I find that I continue to plumb the meanings of those simple words each day, as new and once-unimaginable forms of human behavior bend all prior definitions.

What does this have to do with Roger Clemens taking steroid shots and freshmen texting notes?

We like to believe that everyone understands the difference between true and false, honest answers versus cheating or plagiarism, playing clean versus playing dirty. In fact, as each day's headlines remind us, we should assume no common platform for ethical conduct. We should be increasingly alarmed by news that suggests that too many people have less than a five-year-old's grasp of the meaning of true and false.

Trinity's venerable Honor System is an educational process designed to teach students about ethical conduct in all matters. Teaching students how to live honorably and behave with integrity in the contemporary climate is often a challenge. Sometimes, we tend to romanticize the past success of the Honor System, citing an era when students could be trusted to self-schedule exams and plagiarism was rare. We sometimes tend to point to changing student characteristics as reasons for a rise in cheating cases.

In fact, we need to look out the window and see what's happening in the larger society beyond Michigan Avenue. Let's examine our oft-unspoken stereotypes against the reality of contemporary culture.

We want to forgive instances of cheating as consequences of poverty.

But consider the case of Bernard Ebbers, now in prison for fraud and conspiracy in defrauding WorldCom investors of more than $11 billion. He was a very wealthy man. So was the late Kenneth Lay, convicted of fraud in the notorious Enron case. Indeed, the most notorious cases of lying, stealing and cheating occur at the highest levels of wealth and power. Some of the most honest people on the face of the earth are those who own nothing but their honor, and they would not trade it for even a loaf of bread.

We tend to suggest that powerlessness is a source of dishonesty.

Consider the case of the once-most-powerful-man-in-the-world President Bill Clinton who lied about his affair with a White House intern. He sounded no smarter than a vocabulary-challenged kindergarten girl when he told the grand jury that "it all depends on what your definition of 'is' is…" Consider the case of Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, convicted of perjury — plain old lying — in the case involving disclosure of a CIA agent's identity (President Bush commuted Libby's sentence). Power, in fact, seems to make people think that they can act outside of normal rules of conduct, when, in fact, the ethical temptations of high office require even more scrutiny of every action.

We might say that cheating is a result of unemployment.

But the head of the Washington Teachers Union was certainly gainfully employed when she embezzled millions from the dues paid by hard-working teachers to furnish her home and stuff her closets. The staff of the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue were at a sufficiently high level at work to be able to sign checks, which led some of them to steal more than $20 million from D.C. tax revenues. The former head of the D.C. Public Charter Schools is now serving time in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars and steering contracts to her friends. In fact, the workplace is a dangerous landscape for the ethically challenged.

Some say that cheating might be sourced in underperforming K-12 schools, in the poor preparation of some students for collegiate work.

Consider the sad case of Historian Joseph Ellis, professor of History at Mt. Holyoke, Pulitzer Prize winning author of such notable works as Founding Brothers about the American Revolution and American Sphinx on Thomas Jefferson. Great learning, a high academic position, extraordinary professional acclaim — none of these rewards of high literacy prevented Dr. Ellis from committing one of the most rudimentary forms of deception, lying about his past. He claimed service as a soldier in Vietnam that turned out to be a myth. Another famously literate Historian Stephen Ambrose somehow could not avoid plagiarism. Sufficient numbers of other literary luminaries, university presidents and even pastors have run afoul of plagiarism and ethics rules (and common sense) to lead to a clear conclusion that no amount of education can substitute for the fundamental value of honesty.

Speaking of pastors, we might also privately think, but dare not say aloud, that the changing religious characteristics of our student body have something to do with more challenges for the Honor System.

Consider the Catholic Church's own scandal with cover-ups in child abuse cases. Even bishops wrestle with the demons of deception.

For all those who pointed to Barry Bonds and Marion Jones to infer insidiously that cheating might somehow be a character flaw of one race, consider now: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Eric Gagne — White ballplayers, all pitchers, listed with scores of other players in the Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball.

Cheating in sports, as in life, is a function of the human condition, not a result of race or religion or poverty or power or any other characteristic or context.

The ability to live a consistently honorable life is a value cultivated first through good home training, through parents and schools that work together to form conscience and values in the young, through friends who confront each other when tempted to cross the line, through communities that value virtue while working for justice. Honor and integrity cannot be purchased, or elected, or appointed, or hired, or rewarded in any way save through the comfort of having a clean conscience every single waking moment.

So, how does Trinity persist in teaching about truth in these days of deceit?

The Honor System is a simple teaching tool, a way to talk openly, directly and continuously about the importance of doing what's right every day, in all circumstances, whether anyone is watching or not.

In spite of occasional temptations to scrap the Honor System and replace it with a Big Motherish system of even more administrative procedures and vigilant eyes watching everyone all the time, we have to realize what's at stake: our belief that trust is more powerful than suspicion, that honor and justice must be shared values in the community, that integrity can be taught even if it needs occasional purposeful consequences for failure.

In this ethically-challenged culture, the fact that students try to cheat should raise no eyebrows. But it would be stunning for a value-centered learning community like Trinity to retreat from the persistent and passionate commitment to the values expressed through the pedagogy of the Honor System. We can certainly change administrative procedures and judicial processes to meet the needs of the times. Let's not confuse procedural adaptations with the fundamental philosophy and values of Trinity, namely that the values of honor and integrity are essential to justice, and that we can teach every student to accept her or his responsibility to uphold those values and to help others to do the same.

See clemens, honesty, ethics, mitchell

Just so happens that I've had a thing for baseball all my life. Yes, it's slow, maddeningly boring at times, but at it's best baseball is a beautiful sport.

Or, was.

Sadly, the news today of a high-level report on widespread steroid use among professional ballplayers makes Major League Baseball seem as phony as televised wrestling, a "sport" unworthy of the name.

Among the big league names in this broad indictment, the once-great Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens heads the list. Ok, so we suspected Barry Bonds all along, and knew about Jason Giambi and Raphael Palmiero — but Roger Clemens? Andy Pettite? Say it ain't so! [Yes, readers, "ain't" is bad grammer for a college president, but the phrase "Say it ain't so, Joe!" is well known among baseball fans as the anguished phrase uttered by a young fan to the legendary Black Sox player Shoeless Joe Jackson upon learning that his hero was part of a plot to throw the World Series in 1919.]

Debates may rage about whether taking steroids is in the same league with taking money to fix games — from my perspective, it's all cheating, just a matter of different tactics. The game relies on the integrity of the players, the managers, the entire baseball organization to uphold the simple expectation that the performance of the players on the field is genuine, not fake. Performance-enhancing drugs make it possible for players to exhibit powers they could not achieve on their own merits. Plagiarism for the muscular. Text-messaging exam answers to the clueless synapses. Gaining an advantage over the players who swing their bats clean, bulking-up to beat other teams. Can we trust the W-L records at all now? Should these players be allowed to stay in the game? Will the formerly "great" players now be eligible for the Hall of Fame, or do their tainted records mean that they will be remembered forever for what coulda-shoulda been?

Today's news came courtesy of former Senator George Mitchell who conducted an investigation at the request of Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. The Mitchell Report is widely available online.

Baseball, of course, is not the only sport with a drug problem. The sad spectacle of Olympian Marion Jones keeps playing out, and the suspicions around Tour de France cyclists remain. Who knows what similar investigations of professional basketball and football might reveal?

Professional sports collectively is a massive economic machine for this nation. Professional and elite amateur athletes, for better or worse, do become "role models" for the young. Perhaps the best result of the baseball scandal will be motivation for other sports to get serious about getting rid of the drug culture.

See complete New York Times coverage
See ESPN coverage
See Sports Illustrated coverage

See mitchell report, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones,baseball

Say, "Sports scandal" and most of us probably think of men behaving badly.

Well, think again. In our new era of women's sports equality (sort of), we now have a tragic morality tale of how a great female athlete can also fall far from grace.

Marion Jones was revered one of the greatest female athletes of this generation, supposedly achieving a record five Olympic medals on her own merits. This past week, sadly, we learned she had a little help — she pled guilty to lying about her long-suspected use of steroids to enhance her performance. She has already returned her Olympic medals, and been banned for two years from competition, but far worse, she faces probable prison time for perjury.

Sometimes, students at Trinity wonder why we are so adamant about the Honor Code. Well, consider Marion Jones, now the latest sad example of the consequences of lying and cheating. Instead of retiring to years of fame after a glorious career, she is flat broke, headed to prison, and unlikely to work again in sports — all because she lied about whether she cheated, a double-whammy of broken honor.

Marion Jones presents a genuine American tragedy. She is not the first or only athlete to have fallen for the lure of performance-enhancing drugs. If any good can be found in her story, at least she has finally told the truth, and has apologized in unvarnished terms to her fans and family.

We're still waiting for some well known male athletes to come clean on these issues. Perhaps they can take a lesson from Marion Jones.

See Sally Jenkins' column in the Washington Post

See George Vecsey's column in the New York Times