The Undergraduate

ALL is lost including honor." Only such words can describe the honor system fiasco of the past month. Contrary to prior expressions of optimism in this column, the presentation of the proposed system was badly botched and at the moment the plan lies tabled indefinitely in committee. Primarily to blame was an internecine dispute between Palaeopitus and the Honor System Committee.

The latter after careful consideration arrived at a "flexible" reporting clause one which gave a man the option of reporting dishonesty directly or going to a man and asking him to report himself. Such an expedient seemed ideal in meeting the objections to a rigid clause. Specifically, forced reporting imposed a degree of compulsion inconsistent with a system intended to develop self-discipline and most students admit that they would violate the rule rather than turn in a friend. Under a flexible clause there would be more freedom and an acceptable way to make one's friends take responsibility for cheating.

Any honest, sincere person under the encouragement of the code would not hesitate to talk to a friend; only one terribly naive Undergraduate Council member claims he could turn in a friend for "the good of his soul." The idea of flexibility was acceptable to many people including, at first, Palaeopitus, which supported the Honor System Committee when its plan was proposed to the UGC.

However, after further reflection, Palaeopitus decided that the concept lacked teeth and came out for a strict clause. The result was two long, arduous UGC meetings which led to a tentative vote narrowly in favor of flexibility. Then TheDartmouth changed directorates and the new editors decided that neither plan was acceptable and went all out to kill the whole thing. Three editorials, a "historical" column filled with damning quotes, and interviews with faculty members, who favored strict reporting, all served to undermine the proposal. When Daily D President George H. Stern '57, who serves on the UGC as president of Green Key, moved to send the whole mess back into committee, it carried (in a ballot taken after midnight with a large segment of the Council absent).

The Dartmouth suggested that time was needed to make men more honor conscious before the system be introduced. It suggested that the flexible clause was appropriate only for the philosopher's Utopia. By that line of reasoning, we will never see an honor system until Plato's Republic is established .at Dartmouth. Such arguments are pure sophistry.

Let us reexamine the facts. At present cheating is almost non-existent on the campus (despite the loose statements which were made during, the debate). The only problem of any magnitude is plagiarism of papers and that is confined to a lunatic fringe. For a basically honest student body we now have an enforcement system more appropriate to Sing Sing.

Proctoring regulations are written as if felons were taking the exams. Yet it is doubtful whether this method produces anything other than resentment - both by the faculty, who do not like to treat pupils thus, and by undergraduates. Under this or any other system, those who wish to cheat will do so; such men are few in number and harm no one but themselves.

At present, if a student sees a classmate cheat, he ignores it because "the faculty say they will enforce the rules, so let them worry." Under an honor system, as personal experience with hour exams without proctors show, there is no additional impetus to cheat. With a formal code there is, however, a stimulus for the student to take action to enforce honesty. However, such procedures must be consistent with student mores and unless there is an acceptable step the code may well be violated. This leads inevitably to a flexible clause.

What has been presented thus far is only the negative case - that is, what is not wrong with an honor system. Consider now its positive merits. It encourages a man to develop proper attitudes toward his moral conduct; he can feel that he is being truly honest. As John Milton so forcefully pointed out in Areopagitica, "He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasure and yet abstain and yet distinguish and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true wayfaring Christian."

Honesty is at present the "fugitive and cloistered virtue" Milton could not praise and it would probably be so under a compulsory reporting clause. An honor system would have been an important addition to the College; its friends felt sure that with reasonably intelligent preparation it could have been adopted this year.

The Honor System Committee conscientiously developed a plan that seemed the closest possible to acceptability. It was, therefore, unfortunate that their work was undermined as it was.

ANOTHER bit of discouraging news came from the Interfraternity Council which reported that a majority of the fraternity members polled opposed implementation of the referendum on discriminatory clauses. However, only three-fourths of the house members were reached, which means that there may be a large group too indifferent to reply. As was noted by the IFC, the poll's results cannot be adequately evaluated and their value lies in measuring the trend of opinion as the 1960 deadline for clause removal nears.

In another, field the Undergraduate Council's Third Annual Political Affairs Conference was a huge success. Elsewhere in the issue Bob Gile '56 writes about the event, so little additional comment is necessary here. One thing it brought home forcefully was Dartmouth's importance as a national institution. Isolated as we are in Hanover, students often tend to take this fact for granted and think only in terms of the College's importance to themselves. However, with a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, an influential member of the Eisenhower Administration, representatives of the National Committees and a fair-sized press corps, one was impressed with the drawing power of the name Dartmouth. It also drew delegates from schools as far south as Washington, D. C.

Another interesting lesson taught was the vigor of student journalism. At Estes Kefauver's press conference delegates who were connected with their school papers horned in and dominated the question period. The professionals present rather than resenting it admitted that the inquiries were blunter than they could ask.

For those who have lost touch with such things we would like to call attention to a magazine called Playboy which has become increasingly popular on college campuses. It can be best described as a lowtoned Esquire - off-color anecdotes and cartoons, pin-ups of well-proportioned females, and a few articles. The ever-zany promoters of Band Variety Night figured that a good tie-in between their affair and Playboy would, as one of the promoters put it, "be nothin' but great."

So did Playboy, and they decided to send up one of their staff members to grace Variety Night. They picked one Janet Pilgrim who is subscriptions manager and doubled one month as the pin-up girl or, as they call her, "Playmate." At present there is a contest in which men are asked to write why they want to escort her to Variety Night - which the winner will do.

The Fraternity Plays went off this year with more finesse than usual, and Phi Kappa Psi came out the winner with its version of "The Time of Your Life." Second was taken by Delta Upsilon with a production of "The Boor" by Chekhov. Army Veteran William Rogers '54 was called upon by Chi Phi to star in "Mooney's Kid Don't Cry" by Tennessee Williams. He was" named best actor.

Last fall we reported a new flag flying the name of The Dartmouth at the top of page one, but the new directorate has returned the Indian, plain type and ears, which now bear pithy statements like "Honi soit qui mal y pense," presented as wisdom for the day but which are more likely to provide a daily chuckle. Other changes include a sweeping revision of titles starting from the top where the head man is now called a President. The move is to emphasize the fact that he is head of both the business and news sides of the paper. His chief aides are the editor and the business manager, who operate in their respective spheres as before.