Haverford sounds amazing- a warm, caring community, small classes, the relationship with the Quaker consortium and bi-co with Bryn Mawr…
I have just one concern. I am wondering about the honor code. I have two conflicting images and am not sure which is truer to form. One is of students being trusted as mature, responsible, honorable young adults. The other image is of self-righteous students tattling on each other (“I thought I saw him glance at his phone and I think he was cheating!”). Do students report on one another a lot, whether to adults or to a committee of students?
(Please note that this is my question, not anyone else’s in my family.)
The Honor Code is very rarely used for tattling. There’s actually an issue with students not reporting on cheating enough, according to a survey Haverford ran. The Honor Code is definitely a great aspect of Haverford, which almost all the students appreciate.
Honor Code is very much about self-determination, mutual respect, and community. It is NOT about ratting someone out. And my recollection is, Honor Code violations go to student board, not administration. The whole idea is, the Honor Code allows the students to create a community built on mutual respect – think about how your actions affect those around you.
Also, the culture at Haverford is about achieving your own personal best, not about finding a way to beat out the other kid, so it is not a culture of ratting out others.
As the parent of a Haverford student my view is that the Honor Code imbues campus life with trust, responsibility, self-authority and the mission to be in competition only with one’s self. It is my understanding that if a student has a very strong reason to suspect another student has violated the Honor Code the first step is to approach the suspected offender and discuss it with them directly. If that doesn’t clear things up, then one can report to The Honor Council. If there was cheating or another violation of the code, the goal though, ideally, is to get the perpetrator to report themself.
Current student here, and I just want to echo what Pivia1 said. For a specific example, my friend recently overheard someone discussing how they may have plagiarized something on a homework they were about to turn in, but they weren’t intending to change it. My friend told him that she thought that would be an Honor Code violation, and they had a conversation about it with the lab monitor. The person ended up turning in the assignment incomplete. One great thing about the honor code is it’s very rarely used to “go behind people’s backs.”
I also want to say that it’s certainly not perfect! I was kind of shocked to see recent statistics on the kinds of violations that were unreported. The student body definitely recognizes this, though, and there are lots of people working to make it as good as can be
@doschicos My son was a student at Haverford for 4 years. Haverford is not an atmosphere of tattle tailing. It’s one of collaboration and respect. Why do you ask?
On a related matter, how does the Honor Code work in terms of perceived slights (e.g. “microaggressions”)? Is there a sense that students have to be very very careful of what they say and do to not offend others? Do students get in trouble or written up for wearing a distasteful Halloween costume?
@megan12 I was surprised by your answer because I took you to mean the opposite of your most recent comment. The title of the thread was tattletales or honorable adults so when you initially answered “I get a sense that it is the former rather than the latter” I understood you to be saying that they were more tattletales which was definitely NOT in keeping with my own perceptions. Glad to hear that isn’t what you meant.
@psycholing The Haverford campus is in general pretty liberal, so it’s commonly acknowledged among students that microaggressions are harmful and should be called out. I’d draw a distinction between your use of “perceived slight” and “microaggression,” with microaggression having the meaning of subtle discrimination against a marginalized group, and with microaggressions being specifically what the Code and many students want to combat. People don’t go quoting the code willy-nilly if someone insults them, if that’s what you mean. I would not say this attitude is much different than other colleges I have heard of, though, especially LACs. I also don’t think it paralyzes freedom of speech, as many like to argue–obviously there will be differences of opinion on this. There will be extreme people anywhere, but the majority of Haverford students (in my experience) don’t think of the Honor Code as something that makes them scared to talk.
Specifically regarding Halloween, there was social honor council case a few years back involving two white men who impersonated black female popstars with fake breasts and blackface. So yes, these two were “written up” (but it was for what many consider more harmful than just a “distasteful” Halloween costume).
@larensea Perhaps you can give an example of “subtle discrimination against a marginalized group” that gets called out by the honor code. I am not sure microaggressions were what the Code was specifically designed to combat – perhaps it is conceived that way now but I don’t think it was at its origin. Legally discrimination is thought to be systemic or blatant, not “micro”.
Some of the items that are termed as “microaggressions” on, let’s say, University of Minnesota’s microaggression website are in fact simply valid expressions of freedom of speech. I may not agree with those expressions, but as someone who believes in democracy I would defend the right of anyone to express those opinions. So – to make this more concrete – if someone were to say that they disapproved of affirmative action and instead approved of a pure meritocracy --, they assert they support Ayn Rand – is that potentially a Code violation? (I am not in any way endorsing this view – just interested in whether that would be an allowable opinion. )
@doschicos Sorry if that wasn’t clear. I was trying to say that it was more the former (students being trusted as mature, responsible, honorable young adults) rather than the latter (self-righteous students tattling on each other).
Speaking of the Halloween incident - it was such a big deal that it is used as part of the “customs week” orientation that freshmen are given, to help them understand expectations, what microagressions are, and how all of this relates to Haverford’s vaunted honor code. This year the situation is being heavily debated again because a student in the class of 2020 wrote a letter to the student newspaper that objected to way the matter was handled. That in turn created quite a discussion, with lots of letters and comments. It can be quite painful to read all the material, as not only are there dozens if not hundreds of pages of material reflecting the original case and everyone’s responses, there are excesses and ridiculous claims on all sides of the issue.
But that’s just the negative side - the POSITIVE aspect of all this is: isn’t it wonderful that so many Haverford students care so deeply about moral and ethical considerations, and express themselves with such thoughtfulness and insight? And for the most part, they give each other great respect and listen and respond to each other, even when their views are wildly divergent.
For those who want to explore the situation, links are given below. Be forewarned, though - it’s not always easy reading and there is a LOT of it. At the end of the day, however, I believe it makes a powerful case for Haverford. It’s clearly a place where people are passionate, but not blindly so, about their beliefs. I am proud that my son is one of the students involved in the discussion!
Just to clarify – our family is not at all conservative. But as someone who went to college at a time when being “liberal” was the stigmatized viewpoint, I am very wary of college campuses that do not allow and respect non-majority opinions.
