COLUMN: Honor Code preserves freedom, integrity
* It establishes the foundation for the rules that guide our academic careers both in class and out of it.
* It creates a council so that the instrument that teaches and interprets our system, and the one that is sometiems responsible for judging us, is a group of our elected peers.
* And it is a code that enables us to develop our minds, our hearts and our aspirations in a community that allows us the freedom to do so.
Academic freedom and academic integrity are the two concepts at the base of our system and they must go hand in hand.
Academic freedom. It sounds like something every university should offer, but not every does. Here at Rice, academic freedom is something every student has the right to.
It is not having to do every task at a certain time in a certain place in a certain seat.
Academic freedom is about having the opportunity to learn on your own terms. It is also about being able to work with faculty who trust their students and believe in cooperation.
Academic freedom is about communication, not dictation.
Academic integrity. It is the key to keeping academic freedom a reality at Rice.
It means doing the right thing no matter how hard it may be.
It means staying up and pulling the all-nighters. It means spending all day in the library to do research. It means working on a project with someone else and knowing when it's time to pull back and use your own ideas.
It means turning in your work and being able to say "This many not be the best ever, but it's my best effort and it's my own work."
Then, when it's all over, it is also about having the strength to accept your best efforts, whether they be good or bad.
Academic freedom and academic integrity define the Honor System. They are the ideas that frame our community and allow us the luxury of developing our minds, our hearts and our aspirations.
In our time here at Rice, we will all experience stress, uncertainties and doubt.
However, those things are all parts of the Rice experience.
I also hope that in your time you will learn to see that the Honor System isn't just a set of rules that we use so that we may secure a good job or a spot in a top graduate school.
I hope that you will see that, though the Honor System cannot instill honor in you, it does give you the chance to live and work in a university where the ideals and idealism of honor, academic freedom and academic integrity are around you as part of our community.
You have an important responsibility now to uphold the ideals of the Honor System and the Honor Code itself.
Rice is your school now and your community. You must do your part to maintain its integrity.
When we walk out of the Sallyport upon our graduation, we will know that the diploma we have was earned through our own work, efforts, successes and defeats. Take pride in such a thought and strive for such a reality.
If you do that much, you will succeed.
Carolyn Gill is a Hanszen College junior and chairperson of the Honor Council.
This item appeared in the Opinion section of the August 25, 1995 issue.
Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights
Reserved.
This document may be distributed
electronically, provided that it is distributed in its
entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted
without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA.
The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu