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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (June 3, 1897)
TALE ALUMNT WEEKLY. EDITOR, Lewis S. WELCH, °89. ASSOCIATE EDITOR, WALTER CAMP, '80. —_—_—_— NEWS EDITOR, GRAHAM SUMNER, ’97. —_— ASSISTANTS, JOHN JAY, ’98. H. W. CHAMBERS, °99. R. W. CHANDLER, 1900. TREASURER, E. J. THOMPSON. (Office, Room 6, White Hall.) Entered as second class matter at New Haven P. O ‘New HAVEN, CONN., JUNE 3, 1897, THE FACULTY’S NEW MEMBERS. The great increase in Yale’s teaching staff in the last decade of unusual growth, has already been expressed in figures. It is more to the point, per- haps, to express the feeling of those familiar with the comparatively new members of the Faculty and their work here, that Yale has attached to herself men who are well qualified to take upon their shoulders the great bur- den of responsibility which comes with a share in the University’s educational work. They are men of enthusiasm for their work, of excellent training for it, and of sympathy with the ideals and spirit of the place. We believe that the latest additions to the staff, chronicled elsewhere, will also prove to meet these high requirements of Yale’s teachers. ~~ —>—_——— THE LOSING OF THE CUP, To Pennsylvania is due full credit for her prevailing score at the Inter- collegiate Games, and we beg to offer her congratulations thereon. Her fig- ures of superiority are unfortunately too high to be affected by any possible result of swiftness and strategic cam- paigning on wheels. But there is nothing for Yale men to be sad about. They wanted to win, but they couldn’t. To a team with more sure points in -it, has gone victory and the cup. A hard fight is over. A battle must be lost as well as won, and Yale lost well. It is by no juggling with our palates, that we find sweetness in the fruit that is within reach. We have before said why there is reason for much satisfaction with the work of the Track Team of 1897. There is just as much reason for this satisfaction as there was at the finish of the games with Harvard. A team of general excellence, well trained and full of fight, is the most valuable re- sult of any athletic management. To those who won points for Yale at New: York the most cordial congratulations are in order. To the Captain and to all members of the Team of 1897, and to their excellent and modest trainer, it is in order to say that they deserve and have the respect and gratitude of» the Yale community. —_+0o——__—__ THE ATHLETIC TEAM CAPTAIN. The Track Team have chosen an ex- cellent athlete for their leader for an- other year. They have chosen also a man who will be an excellent represen- tative of Yale, and will be sure to keep a high standard of sportin his manage- ment of the team. It is cause also for very general satisfaction, on the part of those who like to see things in their right relations, that Mr. Perkins is also one of the very best scholars of his class. That fact is very good for ath- letics in general and for Yale athletics in particular. Se oe The University bicycle team went to Bridgeport on Monday, May 31, and won “every event in the meet of the Rambler Cyclers. YALE “ALUMNI CRIBBING. Where the Trouble is at Yale—~Reme- dies Suggested. To the Editor of the Yale Alumni Weekly, Sir:— Recognizing that one who ventures to express himself on the subject of unfair work in examinations lays him- self open to the charge of having taken himself too seriously, I feel warranted nevertheless in making an _ appeal, through the columns of the Weekly to graduates and undergraduates alike, for a change of attitude toward cheat- ing in Yale examinations. We have had our attention called during the year to the prevalence of cheating at Harvard, and have gone straightway and prayed with the Phar- isee, ‘God, we thank Thee that we are not as other colleges are,’? and yet any one who is at all obesrvant will be very slow in affirming for Yale a superiority in this regard that justifies boasting. There is difference of opinion as to the amount of cheating, as to its cause and as to its cure; yet I presume all will admit that there is cheating Cone, and that it ought’ to be stopped. It is, of course, not sufficient to believe that there is no more cheating done at Yale than at other large universities (or per- haps not so much); if we are sensitive to our own honor the question is, rath- er, cannot this amount be very consid- erably lessened? Now, I suspect that Yale men are unanimous in believing that the sense of honor and of high manliness is the supreme and dominant tone in Yale's athletics; that on the field a dishon- orable act is absolutely discounte- nanced; that the man must win his place by his own endeavor and hold it by an exhibition of skill and fairness that cannot be challenged. An. unfair advantage taken or a mean spirit man- ifested on the diamond or on the track | is hissed into speedy retreat. It is this spirit of hearty approval for that which is fair and generoug and undisguised condemnation of that which is underhanded, comprising as it does the essence of that quality which we call Yale spirit, that ought te. be carried into the classroom. The question at once arises, will a man copy a neighbor’s paper in an examination who would blush either to do, or to see done, by a Yale man, a thing equally mean at the field? Does it mean that the individual’s sense of honor is merely that which the crowd is willing to express, and that he has no self-preserving notion of right in himself? Or does tt mean that a different standard of morals prevails in the classroom, and that which is wrong in syort ceases to be blame- worthy in study? It is true that men are more or less governed by the code of morals which the college world sets up, and TI do not think the statement will be challenged when I say that the college sentiment toward cheating: is not one of uncom- promising hostility. It is, rather, one of semi-indifference; a man may avail himself of another man’s work and yet be a good fellow, not debarred from the honors which the class have to dis- pense. Ask individual men if they jus- tify cheating, and most men will say no; but these same men do not suffi- ciently despise the practice to hold in dishonor those who do not scruple to do it. A man who is dishonest through and through is everywhere despised but it cannot be denied that these So- called little acts of dishonesty, which Rae fae yee of “cribbing,” do not = e from e studen ibi- Hye condemnation, © PORT DED ge is point deserves especial empha- sis, that we, graduates FEL wndereee. uates, are to a certain large extent re. sponsible for the dishonor which at- taches to individual men who are impli- cated in its actual performance, As long as the student body is indifferent or only quiescently hostile, many men will not feel scrupulous in doing what on second thought they are surprised at themselves for having done. As one man said to me: “The morals of this cheating business doesn’t bother me much, for IT know that I am not dis- graced in the eyes of the class for do- ing it.”” Now no such statement ought _to be possible, nor would it be possible if we would stop talking of the “clever- pareict of a eee and begin mark upon dae p he meanness of the Futhermore, it is no doubt tr a somewhat different studied ial a lowed to prevail in the class room, and Wwe meet the old sophistry that the question of individual honor is removed by the fact that the student is under Supervision. However much such talk may be indulged, I.do not think many men.. believe in it. Its fallacy is Why. WV tuto too apparent. No police court excuses a culprit on the ground that patrolmen are walking the streets. Yet it is true that men argue in a half serious way to this effect: ‘“‘The whole thing is a game; if I can crib and not get caught, I prove my cleverness and de- serve the higher mark.’’ And, though aware of the weakness of their position, men talk themselves at length into a partial persuasion that there is no harm in it after all. Men know in reali- ty that they are always on their honor; that a dishonorable deed is not changed in nature by being done in. an instruc- tor’s presence; that in every examina- tion they are writing their individual character down as much as anything, and if, to get a mark of 2.25, they must copy from another man’s paper, they know that they do it by recording for their manhood a mark well below 2. The cause of cheating is, it seems to me, very largely attributable to those two things. The feeling that the class will not hold a man seriously in dishon- or for so doing, combined with the bolstered up notion that a different standard admits of different conduct, the men forgetting for the time that a thing is being done no less mean than Signing one’s name to that which is not his own, posing for what one is not, and thereby enacting a lie. If this be a correct opinion as to the cause of cheating, the line along which its cure is to be effected does not seem difficult to suggest. There must be in the first place a recognition that the practice is dishonorable; and in the second place the resident spirit of Yale against all dishonor must be evoked in the interest of its supression. It seems to me that both Faculty and students have a part to perform in the ac- complishment of these two results. To the Faculty there belongs the task of characterizing the practice by its true name and insisting that every known instance of its occurrence shall _ be visited with the severest penalty, to the end that all unfairness be abso- lutely stopped. This is the first and es- sential step toward bringing about an actual belief in and open recognition of the real nature of cheating; and, with that established, the native spirit of Yale men against all dishonor will not be long in expressing itself. I do. not believe however, that this sentiment will assert itself in a controlling way among graduates and undergraduates, until the Faculty take the initiative in declaring that cheating: is of the es- ‘sence of dishonor and must be stopned. The exact method of procedure would, no doubt, receive many different suggestions. ciently optimistic to believe that this result can be achieved by an honor sys- tem. But, in proposing an honor sys- tem, it should be in fact an honor sys- tem, having no compromising append- ages in the shape of affidavits to the effect that the signer has indeed been honorable. If it were officially stated that all supervision of examinations would be withdrawn after a certain date, and an appeal were made to the personal honor of the men to make the effort successful, I believe that the un- dergraduate spirit, supported as it would be by graduate sentiment, would do for the classroom exactly what it has accomplished for the athletic field— establish there a sense of chivalrous honor. Tf, after thorough trial, this plan could not be shown successful, no op- position could then be made to a return. with increased severity, to the method of supervision. But, whether the meth- od be the honor system or the system of supervision is not the thing of su- preme importance; the vital point is that cheating should stop. We may or may not agree with the method which Harvard has adopted for putting a ston to this practice; but we can searcely fail to admire the recogni- tion they have shown of the real na- ture of the offense, and the fact that they have set themselves face to face with the problem, calling the evil by no polite names and sturdily demand- ing its extinction. This should likewise be the end to achieve at Yale: if possi- ble, by working through the spirit of the men in question, but, if necessary, by no less severe a measure than a resort to the rigorism of Harvard. We all known that. under the pres- ent circumstances, there are occasional (Continued on eighth page.) Ghe Bachelor of Arts, Is praised by all Yale men, and is the mouthpiece of the Alumni. *“¢The Bachelor of Arts’ pursues a commendable policy of conservatism. It is always on the side of the RIGHT, and is growing to be regarded as containing the best general Alumni sentiment in regard to Col- lege matters. 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