YALE ALUMNE WEEKLY
DOUBLE STANDARD OF MORALS.
The Curse of College Communities.
Harvard's Attack on Dishonesty.
—
[From Report of Dean Briggs of Harvard to Presi-
dent Eliot.]
The most anxious disciplinary work
of the year was not the closing of the
probations, though that is never ef-
fected without wear and tear, but the
struggle for the suppression of dis-
honesty in written work. This kind of
dishonesty has baffled the authorities.
How it undermines the sense of honor
in a college community was clearly
shown last year by the experience of
a neighboring university in its effort
to purse itself of this evil; how it dulls
the moral perception of what we call
“good fellows” in our own college,
may be seen in the lightness
which many of them talk about it.
That every one of eighteen hundred
men shall be honest is too much to
expect; but that any considerable part
of public opinion should wink at this
form of falsehood is scandalous. Two
years ago the board - undertook to
bring about, through conference with
students, a gradual change in public
opinion; but soon, and with some im-
patience, it abandoned the undertak-
ing and issued a kind of proclamation
in these words:—
“The Administrative Board of Har-
vard College, holding that the handing
in by a student of written work not
his own is dishonorable and unworthy
of a member of this University, pro-
poses hereafter to separate from the
College a student guilty of Such con-
duct.’’
COLLEGE EXCUSES.
The proclamation was designed, first,
to give fair warning to offenders and,
secondly, to point out the real nature
of the offence. At Harvard College a
liar, clearly known as_ such, is
ostracized; a student who hands in as
his own writing what he has copied
from another man’s writing may be,
for social purposes, as good as ever.
Few students approve of the theme.
buyer and the theme-vender (who, by
the way, feel a loity contempt for
each other); and few defend the
student who tries, with copied work
to get scholarships, prizes, or honors;
but if a companion is hard pressed by
initiations oor theater parties or
athletics, if his standng with the
Faculty is precarious, if he is in dan-
ger of losing his degree,—he may
copy something now and then in sheer
self-preservation.
Looked at critically, he has missed
an educational opportunity; but the
loss 1s his only, and need not worry
the Faculty; if detected, he cannot ex-
pect credit for his comrosition, but to
suspend him is monstrous. He himself
aflirms that he did what everybody
does; that he “had to hand in some-
thing,’? was not well, and was short
of time; that his name on the theme
is a mere label, quite non-committal
as to the question of authorship;—
perhaps that he copied from a book
which the instructor ‘‘could not help
knowing,’ and that therefore he could
mean no. deceit (he ‘‘agreed with
Thackery’s ideas and could not im-
prove on his language’). He adds
that he learned to ‘crib’? at school.
Soon he is reinforced by a father who
assures the Dean that the young man
is the soul of honor, and that this
‘breach of the rules’ is the thought-
lessness of a mere boy, which will
never show itself again.
STANDARDS AMONG GENTLEMEN,
If a man, invited to lecture before
a society of gentlemen, reads, with-
out acknowledgement, another man’s
work, everybody knows where to put
him. His offence is not “breach of the
rules” but fraud. He may not say in
words, “I wrote this lecture;” his very
preserice says it; and if he did not
write the lecture, he is a dishonest
man. The motive may be money, or
glory, or pressure for time and dread
of failure,—no matter. Those gentle-
men have done with him. —
So with a student who hands in as
his own for his own eredit, marked
with his own signature, a composition
copied from another mantis work. No
matter what his motive; no matter
how agreeable he is; no matter how
much he is benumbed with the ter-
with.
‘gentleman and _ does _iie,
ror of public opinion; no matter
whether he is generally upright with
his fellows and is going by and by to
be upright with everybody;—for the
lime being and _ in this particular act
he is a liar. If he admits that in one
of those weak moments whch come to
shame all men but the strongest, he
has done a dishonest act which he
bitterly repents and for which he is
willing to bear the penalty he may be
respected; otherwise, though by
friends he may well be, forgiven, he
must not, till time and thought have
changed him be counted trustworthy.
There is a close analogy between his
offence and what is called by a coni-
fcrtable academic euphemism “rag-
ging’’ signs. Though men who have
“ragged” signs are not now merely at
large but in places of trust (and
rightly), yet the student who engages
in this sport takes another man’s
vroperty, which has cost money, which
money alone can replace. He is,
therefore, a thief; and a thief with-
out the excuse of hunger, or of pov-
erty, or of belonging by heredity to
the criminal classes,—a purely wanton
thief.
, THE CURSE OF COLLEGE MORALS.
The curse of college morals is a
double standard,—a shifting, for the
convenience of the moment, from the
character of a responsible man to
the character of an irresponsible boy.
The administrative officers accept
without question a student’s word;
they asume that he is a gentleman
and that a gentleman does not lie; if
as happens now and then, he is not a
they had
rather, nevertheless, be fooled son.e-
times than be suspicious always (and
be fooled quite as often).
Frankly treated, the student is
usually frank .himself; our under-
graduates are, in general, excellent
fellows to deal with; yet so much is
done for them, so many opportunities
are lavished on them, that the more
thoughtless fail to see the relation of
their rights to other people’s, and, in
the self-importance of early manhood,
forget that the world is not for them
alone. Students of this kind need
delicate handling. They jealously de-
mand to be treated aS men, take ad-
vantage of the instructors who treat
them so, and excuse themselves on the
ground that, after all, they are only
boys.
This double standard is seen in both
theme-copying and sign-stealing. its
moral effect is probably more insidious
in the former than in the latter; for
whereas persons more or less men-
dacious pass muster in all society but
the best, no decent community outside
of college, will put up with a thief.
In college, both offences have been
tolerated, through the pernicious doc-
trine, held by some respectable per-
sons, that the life of every. young
man,—or at least of every young geli-
tleman,—takes in a period of engaging
anarchy during which period every
thing short of murder may be winkcd
at as boy’s fui. Fun, and not crime,
is doubtless the motive; and the fault
is no more in the young men than in
those staid citizens who boast of their
early escapades and are content that
their sons should behave no better
than they did.
Yet, wherever the blame lies, the
real nature of these acts is so plain to
any one, however young, who suffers
himself to open his eyes, that the
usual slow processes of education may
yerhaps be effectively discarded.
Sign-stealing, for example, received a
sudden check when the Corporation
removed stolen signs from the dormi-
tories, and when Judge Almy, himself
a Harvard man, spread widely the
announcement that the student next
convicted of stealing a sign should go
to jail. The rapidly educational effect
of this announcement suggests a royal
road to the suppression of cheating.
What we want is a penalty that edu-
cates, and educates not the offender
enly but the easy-going college public,
which in this matter has been per-
-gistently blind.
TO EDUCATE THE COLLEGE PUBLIC.
No penalty can educate the public
unless known to the public; and col-
lege penalties have long lacked edu-
cational effect, through secrecy. A
man is dismissed from the University;
and the student public, which either
dces not hear of his dismisisal or
understands that he has gone home
for bis health, is none the wiser. Ac-
cordingly the Administrative Board of
Harvard College, holding that the
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handing in by a student of written
work not his own is dishonorable,
proposes to separate from the College
a student guilty of such conduct, and
to post his name on the College bulle-
tin boards.”
‘To separate’? means, in most cases,
“to suspend.’ Suspension though it
has been tried and found wanting, is
stil in favor with the majority of the
Bcard,—especially when combined
with the posting of names: whoever
deserves the second part of the penalty
dserves the first, and will probably be
willing to take it; the College may
be regarded as a club which publishes
to, members the names of other mem-
bers who by “conduct unbecoming a
gentleman” have forfeited its
privileges. The penalty of pusting
names has been used now and itihen
in the College Library, when a student,
for hiding reserved books from his fel.
lows, or for an offence equally sordid
has been excluded from all the
libraries of the University. ilu such
cases public opinion is unmistakable;
fellow-students, whose rights the of-
fender ‘has selfishly infring+d are less
sparing than the authorities them-
selves, whether vublie opinion will up-
hold this penalty for dishonesty in
written work is not yet known, though
a canvass of the large elective courses
in English Composition give hope that
it will. At the worst, the Board has
shown students where, in its judgment,
the offence belongs, and has left no
excuse ‘for thoughtlessncss.
‘After fair warning, the pesting of
a name loses that malignity which at
first sight seems its chief character-
istic. Indeed, the men who dread this
penalty most are the executive officers .
who may be called on to inilict it. My
hope is that either self-respect or fear
will make the offenze almost impossi-
ble: for whoever cheats will know that
he cheats, and will cheat with his
eyes open to the result of detection;
and my ultimate hope is a higher right
for Harvard Coliege to maintain: that
she stands for truth.
— ~~ _.
An Academic Difficulty.
“You look gloomy; are you in debt?”
“No; the trouble is I can’t get the
chance to be.’—Yale Record.
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SOLE AGENT~
Hon. William L. Wilson, author of
the tariff bill which bears his name,
and at present the Postmaster Gene-
ral of the United States, has accepted
the invitation to deliver the Phi Beta
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mencement week. Mr. Wilson will
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ton, Va.
