The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-03-23
A Wop for the college Honor" System.

discourses are going the rounds of the papers,
asking very seriously if the "honor SYSTEM"
as outlined in the colleges for men, and later
adopted by the women's colleges, has really
served the purpose aimed at.
To be clear and specific: in colleges it has
been found that the student is as much father
to the man. as he was when he was a boy;
the average man will take adyantage;" in
student days this would be called cheating"
Efforts are made to bring the student to a
realization of the crime committed against
honor, In the crbbng of information, under
many names, and finally number of colleges
instituted a Christian Science sort Of moral
suasion plan, whereby each student kept
watch on himself and was honor bound to
observe all the rules of the game.
Many of the colleges claim the new rule a
wonderful success; maybe they proved this by
the poor examination reports of some of the
students who had, before the honor systems
adoption, made startlingl y good reports.
Anyway, as the women's colleges are fol-
lowing the male seats of learning, In every
thing else, they, too, looked at the honor sys-
tenn and as there was also cheating in the
women's colleges, the heads decided to give
the women students the same choice to redeem
themselves that the men had had.
Bryn Mawr is one of the oldest and one
Of the proudest of women S colleges; it stands
In class almost by itself, and has been the
slowest to adopt the new fads and the new
regulations so many of the other colleges had
taken on. And it is from Bryn Mawr that
the bomb has been exploded.
There was, as sort of imitation of the
secret Latin societies, another society whose
members were Of the elect, and the officers
were the pick of the student body.
Cheating has been found to exist to an
alarming eXtent--not only in classes but in
the grilling examinations; the results were so
absolutely at variance with what was known
to be the mental status of some of the women
students, an investigation was made, and the
wholesale cheating of the students caused a
riot
The secret society referred to, had secre-
tary with an exalted sense of the obligations
she assumed when she became a member; she
was also IN a position to know positively who
the guilty students were who had been cheat
ing, and she has caused the tempest by refus-
ing to divulge the names of those wanted for
this serious ofense, and has res gned her
office, in the society, rather than to submit to
what is asked of her: to-wit, give the names
of those of the student body who have SO
fiagrantly disObeyed, not only the laws of the
college, but the highest laws of the honor
system, which had been in vogue, and which
this particular young woman had pledged
herself to observe.
That an educated man or woman should
have any but the proper sense of honor, is a
hard thing to understand To read some Of
the criticisms of the honor system, as it has
been developed in the colleges, gives one a
queer feeling of the low state of morality
that makes a measure of that sort necessary.
We read daily of men of seeming integrity
who have been false to the trust and con-
fidence placed in them; banks have been