The Gift of Honor

 

May 4, 2019

 

Washington and Lee University characterizes its Honor Code as “an all-encompassing system of trust.”  This foundation of trust, pervasive throughout all aspects of student life, is built on the shared understanding that students will not lie, cheat, or steal; the atmosphere on campus is therefore unlike almost any other.  As W&L describes it, “In the classroom, there is never doubt about the authenticity of student work. Professors confidently offer unproctored or self-scheduled exams, students don't worry about leaving their personal belongings unattended, and most campus buildings are accessible 24 hours a day.”  The penalty for those found guilty of violating the Honor Code is immediate dismissal. 

Honor is no abstract nor archaic idea.  It is a gift.  It is perhaps the greatest and most lasting gift we are given as fortunate members of this community.  The rules by which students conduct their lives at Washington & Lee molds and shapes them for all their years to come.  To those who’ve made their way up the Hill to absorb the lessons of generations gone before them among the historic halls of the Colonnade, through wintry mornings and sunny spring afternoons, honor is everything.  It is the standard and basis by which - consciously or not - we will measure every individual we encounter and every action we take or observe, for the rest of our lives.

Washington College President Robert E. Lee wrote his famous edict, "we have but one rule - that every student must be a gentleman."  Today, it is difficult to imagine many of those in whom we have placed our highest measure of trust ever being Washington and Lee ladies & gentlemen.  It is difficult to imagine our own figures of authority, when we were students, having countenanced what we witness today.  It is difficult, at times, to imagine that this all-encompassing system of trust even still exists, as we have forsworn any national pretense of aspiration toward such lofty and worthy ideals.  The very notion that ladies and gentlemen themselves still even exist, and have any real influence upon our course as a nation, seems today utterly naïve and quixotic.

Memory is short, but history is not.

Honor is everything.  Honor is a beacon in the darkness that steadies our course. Honor is the essence of our character, and is all that remains as wealth, as power, and even as life itself invariably falls away.  When all is remembered, when all is done, what will we as W&L ladies and gentlemen carry forward?  What will we as a nation leave behind?  It should not be said of us that we ceded our honor for affluence.  It should not be written of us that we traded our character for privilege, for preeminence.   We have but a short time before this Stygian ink is dry and those stained pages forever enshroud our memory.