Disclaimer: I currently serve as the Assistant Head Hearing Advisor. The Hearing Advisor Program is separate from the Executive Committee. I have also recently been appointed to serve on the White Book Review Committee. We will review the White Book and potentially modify it over the next few months. However, this article will be submitted prior to our first meeting.

Over the past 273 years, Washington and Lee has undergone numerous changes. Our university has changed its name several times, expanded the student body to allow women, left the Southeastern Conference to join the College Athletic Conference and later the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, and perhaps most obviously to the current student body, it has continued to improve the campus through capital improvements. There are also many things that have not been altered—and make our beloved university what it is today.

Perhaps no idea or tradition is more historic and unchanged than the Honor System which governs all student life on campus. There have been many recent discussions and much dissent among the Washington and Lee student community regarding the Honor System, but there have been few reminders of the benefits the Honor System affords to our community. I hope this essay will serve as a reminder that all of us need; the Washington & Lee Honor System is what makes this school, this campus, and this community special. W&L would not be the same without it. Rather than criticize its existence, we should look to improve the Honor System and continue to follow its principles.

Let’s start with the term honor. What does it mean? Washington and Lee students have a reputation as an honorable student body, affording us an advantage in job interviews, scholarship programs, graduate schools, and any other situation where we are compared to our peers at other schools. Our Honor System should be credited for that advantage. While most universities would agree that their students strive to become honorable students, those familiar with Washington and Lee know for certain that its graduates are honorable. Our Honor System holds us to a higher standard than most other schools require, and when our four years are complete, we leave with a proven track record that demonstrates our ability to live and act in an honorable state.

This allows our professors to trust us beyond what many professors can realistically expect at other schools. Most of us have taken an un-proctored, untimed, self-scheduled exam at one point or another; those who have not experienced this yet will undoubtedly do so in their four years. We can also leave our doors unlocked and our laptops in the library. Perhaps the greatest advantage we have is the ability to forget an item, and then return days later to find it exactly where we left it. The Honor System grants us unimaginable freedoms on campus, and it also provides us an advantage when we leave. Many of us make the most of these opportunities without crediting the source.

The word system is much harder to define because it is so specific to the White Book’s effort to refrain from codification. Accordingly, the Honor System is not codified and can change with the times as the student body sees fit. Many students struggle with this idea and argue for a reform that would allow the student body to clearly identify what is and what is not an Honor Violation. This is a promising idea in theory, but the benefit of an uncodified System is this: an Honor Violation from the 1930s may not be considered an Honor Violation in 2023. As the student body changes, so does its interpretation of the definition of the “community’s trust.” While this does make it difficult to ascertain what exactly would constitute an Honor Violation, the members of the Washington and Lee community know the difference between “right” and “wrong.” The W&L definition of “right” and “wrong” has certainly changed over the past few decades, and the White Book allows the Executive Committee to adapt along with the community. As I shared with students during Honor Orientation a few weeks ago, not every mistake is an Honor Violation, but every Honor Violation is grounds for removal from this community.

The Executive Committee is tasked with examining each situation to find out if the mistake in question indeed violated the community’s trust. Perhaps there is room for more transparency to the student body, but the lack of codification is the best way for the Honor System to change with the times and to follow the interest of the current generation. A codification would limit the Executive Committee in its judgment and remove the idea of a community’s trust. It is intentionally vague, and we should be grateful that our Executive Committee is not bound to rule the same way the Executive Committee ruled a century ago. The student body has adapted, W&L has adapted, and so the Honor System must as well.

Perhaps the biggest differentiator between our Honor System and other honor codes and systems around the country is our single sanction. The W&L Honor System is one of very few single-sanction systems still in existence today. Our neighbors in Charlottesville recently eliminated their single sanction, and most other schools have stepped away from such a strict policy. This is what makes W&L graduates increasingly unique in the real world; we are molded to live with truth and honor for four years because we recognize the consequences of our actions. Not everyone receives a second chance to regain the trust of their peers in the real world, and at Washington and Lee, we are taught that lesson from our very first day of class. The Honor System works so well because of the single sanction. There is no margin of error, so we must live our lives accordingly. Some argue that the Honor System controls the community through fear; rather, the Honor System affords us freedom. My mom often told my siblings and me growing up that the rules she gave us were to provide us the freedom to live within protective guardrails, and the Honor System does the very same thing. By consenting to the Honor System, we are free to take exams in our rooms, leave our belongings all over campus, unlock our doors, and so much more. We are given guardrails and an immense amount of freedom to roam between them. All of us reap those benefits, but too many of us are forgetful of why we have them.

The Honor System will always have its critics, and this is healthy for the System to function properly. In a year where the White Book will potentially be modified, this is especially important. Despite this, the Honor System makes our community what we have come to know and love. Each of us agreed to follow the Honor System by signing the Honor Book before our first class on campus, and so each of us must follow its principles or be removed from this campus. The Honor System allows us to trust our community – even strangers within that community – as if we are close friends. It attaches an honorable reputation to all of us as students and alums of Washington and Lee. There is a difference between identifying minor flaws with the Honor System and undermining its entirety. The freedoms we experience today are given to us because of the Honor System, and most of us will never experience anything quite like this ever again. The Honor System is not perfect and will certainly be improved by current and future generations of Generals, yet its principles should be defended and revered because it is responsible for making W&L, well, W&L.