Cadet Honor Code: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Code of conduct in American military academies}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=MarchJuly 20132022}}

[[Image:TheCadetHonorCodeMonument.jpg|right|thumb|Honor Code Monument at [[United States Military Academy|West Point Military Academy]]]]

AIn the [[United States]], a '''Cadet Honor Code''' is a system of [[ethics]] or [[code of conduct]] applying to military [[cadet]]s studying at [[military academies]]. In the United States, theseThese codes exist at the [[United States service academies|Federalfederal Serviceservice Academiesacademies]], such as the [[United States Military Academy]] and the [[United States Air Force Academy]] and at the [[United States senior military college|Seniorsenior Militarymilitary Collegescolleges]], as well as other military schools and colleges. The [[United States Naval Academy]] and [[United States Coast Guard Academy]] have a related standard, known as the [[Honor Concept]].

Since it applies to all facets of a cadet's life, a cadet honor code is distinct from an [[academic honor code]], which is used at many universities and colleges around the world but applies to academic conduct only. The codes apply to all cadets enrolled in the military programs at the institutions which use them.

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West Point's Cadet Honor Code reads simply that

:{{blockquote|'''''"A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do."'''''}}

Cadets accused of violating the Honor Code face a standardized investigative and hearing process ([http://www.west-point.org/publications/honorsys/chap3.html]). First they are tried by a jury of their peers. If they are found guilty, the case will go up to the Commandant[[List of commandants of cadets of the United States Military Academy |commandant of the academy]] who will give his recommendation, then to the [[Superintendent of the United States Military Academy| superintendent of the academy]], who has the discretion to either impose sanctions or recommend that the [[Secretary of the Army]] expel the cadet from the Academyacademy.

===Definitions of the tenets of the Honor Code===

LYING: Cadets violate the Honor Code by lying if they deliberately deceive another by stating an untruth or by any direct form of communication to include the telling of a partial truth and the vague or ambiguous use of information or language with the intent to deceive or mislead.

CHEATING: A violation of cheating would occur if a Cadet fraudulently acted out of self-interest or assisted another to do so with the intent to gain or to give an unfair advantage. Cheating includes such acts as plagiarism (presenting someone else's ideas, words, data, or work as one's own without documentation), misrepresentation (failing to document the assistance of another in the preparation, revision, or proofreading of an assignment), and using unauthorized notes.

STEALING: The wrongful taking, obtaining, or withholding by any means from the possession of the owner or any other person any money, personal property, article, or service of value of any kind, with intent to permanently deprive or defraud another person of the use and benefit of the property, or to appropriate it to either their own use or the use of any person other than the owner.

TOLERATION: Cadets violate the Honor Code by tolerating if they fail to report an unresolved incident with honor implications to proper authority within a reasonable length of time. "Proper authority" includes the Commandant, the Assistant Commandant, the Director of Military Training, the Athletic Director, a tactical officer, teacher or coach. A "reasonable length of time" is the time it takes to confront the Cadet candidate suspected of the honor violation and decide whether the incident was a misunderstanding or a possible violation of the Honor Code. A reasonable length of time is usually considered not to exceed 24 hours.

To have violated the honor code, a Cadet must have lied, cheated, stolen, or attempted to do so, or tolerated such action on the part of another Cadet. The procedural element of the Honor System examines the two elements that must be present for a Cadet to have committed an honor violation: the act and the intent to commit that act. The latter does not mean intent to violate the Honor Code, but rather the intent to commit the act itself.

===Three rules of thumb===

#Does this action attempt to deceive anyone or allow anyone to be deceived?

#Does this action gain or allow the gain of privilege or advantage to which I or someone else would not otherwise be entitled?

#Would I be satisfied by the outcome if I were on the receiving end of this action?

===History and relevance===

The premise behind the Honor Code is as old as the Academyacademy itself. When the Academyacademy was founded in 1802, the officer corps operated on a simple code of honor—an officer's word was his bond. [[Sylvanus Thayer]], Superintendentsuperintendent of the Academyacademy from 1817 to 1833, explicitly banned cheating as part of his efforts to increase the Academyacademy's scholarship standards. Allegations of theft were dealt with under normal Army regulations until the 1920s. The first major step toward formalizing the unwritten Honor Code came in 1922 when Superintendent [[Douglas MacArthur]] formed the first Cadet Honor Committee, which reviewed all allegations of honor infractions. In 1947, Superintendent [[Maxwell Taylor]] drafted the first official Honor Code publication, which is considered the first codification of the “CadetCadet Honor Code.” Although failure to report violations had long been reckoned as grounds for expulsion, the code wasn't formally amended to expressly forbid "toleration" until 1970.<ref name="westpoint">"[http://www.usma.edu/PublicAffairs/PressReleasesbd/nr14-08_brigade_honor_cpt.htm Brigade Honor Captain Named For 2009 ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306032919/http://www.usma.edu/PublicAffairs/PressReleasesbd/nr14-08_brigade_honor_cpt.htm |date=6 March 2012 }}, Release № 14-08 ''[[United States Military Academy]]'', 14 March 2008, Retrievedretrieved 3 April 2010</ref>

In August 1951, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' reported that 90 of the Academyacademy's 2,500 cadets were facing dismissal for mass violations of the honor code related to "cribbing", receiving the answers to exams ahead of time, allegedly through upperclass tutors who were assisting other cadets, mostly dedicated football players, to study for those exams.<ref name="TimeMag">"[https://web.archive.org/web/20101123154811/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889147,00.html TIME Magazine: "The Nation: Trouble at West Point"]. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 13 August 1951, Retrievedretrieved 26 FebFebruary 2011</ref>

The Army arranged for an investigation by a panel which included famed jurist [[Learned Hand]] and retired generals [[Troy H. Middleton]], then president of [[Louisiana State University]], and [[Robert M. Danford]], a former [[List of Commandantscommandants of Cadetscadets of the United States Military Academy|Commandantcommandant of Cadetscadets]] at West Point.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stephen E. |date=1999 |title=Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SC5wr5A_hbkC&pg=PA318 |___location=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |page=318 |isbn=978-0-8018-6293-9 |author-link=Stephen E. Ambrose}}</ref> The board recommended dismissal of all 90 suspected violators of the Honor Code, and while the Army and Congress debated the issue and its causes, the cadets were left with a cloud hanging over their heads and their futures.

In August 1951, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' reported that 90 of the Academy's 2,500 cadets were facing dismissal for mass violations of the honor code related to "cribbing", receiving the answers to exams ahead of time, allegedly through upperclass tutors who were assisting other cadets, mostly dedicated football players, to study for those exams.<ref name="TimeMag">"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889147,00.html TIME Magazine: The Nation: Trouble at West Point], 13 August 1951, Retrieved 26 Feb 2011</ref>

There have been other instances of mass cheating scandals at the Academyacademy, including two very famous ones. In August 1976, where it was found that possibly over half of the junior class at the Academyacademy had violated the honor code by cheating on a case assignment.<ref name="Jorgie">"[http://www.west-point.org/publications/aba_article.html Duty, Honor, Country, and Too Many Lawyers]", John Harry "Jorgie" Jorgenson, Originally printed in "The Lawyer's Washington" column in the ''American Bar Association Journal'' for April 1977 (63 ABAJ 564-S67). Copyright 1977 by the American Bar Association, Retrievedretrieved 26 FebFebruary 2011.</ref> In 1951, 37 members of the football team were dismissed after they were found to have cheated. The team was so decimated that it fell to 2-72–7, the only losing record suffered by legendary coach [[Red Blaik]].

The Army arranged for an investigation by a panel which included famed jurist [[Learned Hand]] and retired generals [[Troy H. Middleton]], then president of [[Louisiana State University]], and [[Robert M. Danford]], a former [[List of Commandants of Cadets of the United States Military Academy|Commandant of Cadets]] at West Point.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stephen E. |date=1999 |title=Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SC5wr5A_hbkC&pg=PA318 |___location=Baltimore, MD |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |page=318 |isbn=978-0-8018-6293-9 |author-link=Stephen E. Ambrose}}</ref> The board recommended dismissal of all 90 suspected violators of the Honor Code, and while the Army and Congress debated the issue and its causes, the cadets were left with a cloud hanging over their heads and their futures.

In December 2020 73 cadets were accused of cheating on a calculus exam in May 2020, when West Point had shifted to virtual classes due to the [[COVID-19 pandemic]]. A total of 59 cadets admitted to cheating on the exam with 55 of those to be enrolled in the academy's "willful admissions" process, a rehabilitation program that involves after-hours classes, discussions on ethics and the honor code, as well as being on probation for the rest of the year. The four others didn't qualify for that process and will face a cadet advisory board composed of fellow students, who will make a recommendation as to their fate, ranging from probation to expulsion. The academy's superintendent will make a final determination as to what is to happen to them.<ref>[https://us.cnn.com/2020/12/21/politics/west-point-cheating-scandal-2020/index.html "West Point faces worst cheating scandal in decades"]</ref>

There have been other instances of mass cheating scandals at the Academy, including two very famous ones. In August 1976, where it was found that possibly over half of the junior class at the Academy had violated the honor code by cheating on a case assignment.<ref name="Jorgie">"[http://www.west-point.org/publications/aba_article.html Duty, Honor, Country, and Too Many Lawyers]", John Harry "Jorgie" Jorgenson, Originally printed in "The Lawyer's Washington" column in the American Bar Association Journal for April 1977 (63 ABAJ 564-S67). Copyright 1977 by the American Bar Association, Retrieved 26 Feb 2011</ref> In 1951, 37 members of the football team were dismissed after they were found to have cheated. The team was so decimated that it fell to 2-7, the only losing record suffered by legendary coach [[Red Blaik]].

==U.S. Air Force Academy==

The Cadet Honor Code at the Air Force Academy, like that at West Point, is the cornerstone of a cadet's professional training and development —– the minimum standard of ethical conduct that cadets expect of themselves and their fellow cadets. Air Force's honor code was developed and adopted by the Class of 1959, the first class to graduate from the Academyacademy, and has been handed down to every subsequent class.<ref name="honorcode">"[http://www.usafa.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=9427 The Honor Code ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626141648/http://www.usafa.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=9427 |date=26 June 2010 }}", ''[[USAFA]]'' Fact Sheet, April 2009, Retrievedretrieved 3 April 2010</ref><ref name="Honor Code Handbook">"[http://www.usafa.edu/Commandant/cwc/cwch/HCHandbook_Vol02.pdf Honor Code Reference Handbook- Volume II – The Honor System ]", (646 KB) ''USAFA'', August 2008, Retrievedretrieved 3 April 2010</ref> The code adopted was based largely on West Point's Honor Code, but was modified slightly to its current wording:<ref name= malmstrom64Mullen >[https://creativedestructionmedia.com/opinion/2021/08/06/without-an-enforced-honor-code-can-the-military-academies-survive/ Scott Sturman '72 (6 Aug 2021) Without an enforced honor code, can the service academies survive?] 14 word code</ref>

:''{{blockquote|'''We will not lie, steal, or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.'''''}}

In 1984, the Cadet Wing voted to add an "Honor Oath,", which was to be taken by all cadets. The oath is administered to fourth class cadets (freshmen) when they are formally accepted into the Wingwing at the conclusion of Basic Cadet Training.<ref name="Honor Code Handbook" /> The oath consists of a statement of the code, followed by a resolution to live honorably:

:'''''{{blockquote|We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.<br/>Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably (so help me God).<ref name="Final clause in cadet Honor Oath made optional">"[httphttps://www.usafa.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123368388] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407100515/http://www.usafa.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123368388 |date=7 April 2014 }}", Final clause in cadet Honor Oath made optional, October 2013, Retrievedretrieved 4 April 2014</ref>'''''}}

:'''''We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.'''''

:'''''Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably (so help me God).<ref name="Final clause in cadet Honor Oath made optional">"[http://www.usafa.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123368388] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407100515/http://www.usafa.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123368388 |date=7 April 2014 }}", Final clause in cadet Honor Oath made optional, October 2013, Retrieved 4 April 2014</ref>'''''

Cadets are considered the "guardians and stewards" of the Codecode. Cadet honor representatives throughout the Wingwing oversee the honor system by conducting education classes and investigating possible honor incidents. Cadets throughout the Wingwing are expected to sit on Honorhonor Boardsboards as [[jury|juries]] that determine whether their fellow cadets violated the code. Cadets also recommend sanctions for violations. Although the presumed sanction for a violation is disenrollment, mitigating factors may result in the violator being placed in a probationary status for some period of time.

==Senior Militarymilitary Collegescolleges==

The Cadet Honor Codes, described within the Cadet Honor Manuals, belong to the Corps of Cadets at these institutions and is administered by cadets. It is each cadet's duty upon enrollment to be familiar with the honor system as set forth in the Honor Manual and to abide by the Honor Code. Simply stated, the Codecode demands that a cadet does not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do. These codes apply to all cadets at [[Thethe Citadel]], [[University of North Georgia|North Georgia]], [[Norwich University|Norwich]], [[Massachusetts Maritime Academy|Mass Maritime]], [[Texas A&M University|Texas A&M]], [[Virginia Military Institute]], and [[Virginia Tech]], although the systems of administration, enforcement, and sanctions vary between institutions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Honor at The Citadel|url=http://155.225.198.23/root/honor-at-the-citadel|website=www.citadel.edu|publisher=The Citadel|accessdateaccess-date=2015-11-13}}</ref> <ref>{{citecitation|title=Honor Code, Education|url=http://lifeat.norwich.edu/honor-code/|access-date=12 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914171716/http://lifeat.norwich.edu/honor-code/|archive-date=14 September 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> <ref>{{cite web|title=Honor Code, Education|url=http://student-rules.tamu.edu/aggiecode}}</ref>

==In popular culture==

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The 2005 [[ESPN]] made-for-TV movie ''[[Code Breakers (film)|Code Breakers]]'' was about the 1951 scandal in which 83 West Point cadets were implicated in violations of the Cadet Honor Code in order to help the [[Army Black Knights football|West Point football team]].

The 1975 TV movie ''[[The Silence (1975 film)|The Silence]]'' is a recounting of the case of Cadet James Pelosi, who though accused of an honor code violation maintained his innocence and refused to resign from the Military Academy; and as a result was "silenced" by his fellow cadets as permitted under such circumstances by the Honor Code at that time. He was isolated from the other cadets, was not permitted to have roommates, and had to eat all his meals at a separate table. He was not spoken to by other cadets or officers except on duty, and then only on matters of duty; and when addressed was addressed as "Mister,", not by name. Pelosi endured 19 months of this treatment, but went on to graduate with his class in 1973.

''[[The Long Gray Line]]'', a 1955 biopic of Master Sergeant Martin Maher, who served in the West Point Athletic Department as both an Army enlisted man and a civilian employee, featured a sequence concerning a cadet who married a girl on impulse while on leave. Even though the marriage was immediately annulled, Sergeant Maher pointed out to the cadet that there was the Honor Code to consider. (Cadets at West Point cannot be married, an inflexible rule even today.) The cadet in question submitted his resignation rather than face the Honor Committee.

Jimmy Cagney starred in the 1950 movie ''[[The West Point Story (film)|The West Point Story]]''. Part of the plot involved his character, Elwin "Bix" Bixby, a World War II combat veteran and Broadway director, living at West Point as a [[plebe]] cadet and occasionally running afoul of the Honor Code.

==References==

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==External links==

*[http://www.usma.edu/committees/honor/ Cadet Honor Committee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207122424/https://www.usma.edu/committees/honor/ |date=7 February 2018 }}

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080913194545/http://www.west-point.org/academy/malo-wa/inspirations/buglenotes.html Cadet Bugle Notes]

*[http://www.usma.edu/cpme/home.htm The Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic at West Point] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714090353/http://www.usma.edu/cpme/home.htm |date=14 July 2007 }}

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080625175311/http://www.aluminumwomb.com/2003honorcodehandbook.pdf USAF Academy Honor Code Handbook, 2003]

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[[Category:United States Military Academy|Honor code]]

[[Category:United States Air Force Academy|Honor code]]

[[Category:The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina|Honor code]]

[[Category:HonorHonour]]

[[Category:Codes of conduct]]

[[Category:Warrior code]]