1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

312 THE SCROLL.of one man from each of the under classes and two from eachof the upper classes. This committee recommended theexpulsion of the five students, and the faculty acted on theirsuggestion.Cornell has finally decided to give up the attempt of foundingan honor system. The students were asked to sign twoconditions, one of which was a promise neither to give norreceive help, and the other to report any other student foundguilty of breaking these rules. Almost all the students signedthe first, but very few the second. Student^ found guiltywere to be reported first to a student committee, this committeeto report to the faculty. The fact that so many studentsrefused to sign the second agreement is the reason forabandoning the scheme. Hereafter there is to be a spacebetween every two persons trying an examination, and aninstructor will always be present. The New York Evening'Sun says:What is the matter with the Cornell students? Perhaps nothing is thematter with them, the trouble being that the spirit was willing while theflesh was weak. The "honor" system under which examinations were heldis to be abandoned, strange to say, at the request of youths who were caughtcribbing. They could not resist the temptation induced by the absence ofvigilant overseers. So all the students are to be isolated in future. Itwould be absurd to argue from the failure of moral suasion at Ithaca thatboys at that university have no sense of honor. The schoolboy sense ofhonor, like the college sense of honor, is a peculiar thing. Take lying, forinstance. A whole class will lie to protect a culprit, and lie, too, from asense of honor. It just shows that the code of morals in such establishmentsis different from that which prevails in the outside world. It is a fact thatthe professors are regarded as policemen, as enemies of society. To get thebetter of them is not criminal. It is a fact that must be recognized. Dowhat you will, you can't get the young idea to regard the academic treadmillas something sacred. The proper rule is to let the faculty look out foritself. It is different at the women's colleges. There the Ten Commandmentsare part of the system.Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews, ex-President of Brown Universityand present Chancellor of the University of Nebraska,has been making some comparisons between eastern andwestern college students. His general conclusion, basedupon his contact with both classes of students, seems to bethat eastern college boys are more versatile and "finished,"but that western scholars have more of the solid qualities thatgo to make real character and mentality. He says in theNew York Lndependent:If the western college student is in culture scarcely the peer of his easterncontemporary, he quite balances the account by superior mental power—I am, of course, speaking of the usual or average case—and by greater