3. "The 'Harvard milieu' may just not sustain an honor code on any terms. The self-reliance and self-interest of the Harvard student might smother an honor code before it had a chance to grow and thrive."

Neither of the first two reasons suggests that an honor code at Harvard is in and of itself a bad idea; they simply imply that there is not a big enough "crisis." The third objection, however, is a concrete reason why Harvard cannot have an honor code.

The Harvard report rightly suggests we are just too selfish and ambitious to handle an honor code. The Harvard community could not uphold an honor code because a significant number of its members are incapable of putting honor before "success." A good number of Harvard students have weak moral convictions; honor is a hollow word in their vocabularies and consequently they cannot be trusted to act honorably on their own.

The specifics of an honor code vary, but the principle behind one is non-negotiable: Students who have voluntarily entered a community of scholarship ought to be able to trust one another and to live by a certain standard of morality that their signature implies they are willing to do--and that an atmosphere in which a community has agreed to live by an honor code is a more conductive one to producing moral people.

Having an honor code does not mean that people who were previously inclined to cheat will not; what it means instead is that whether to live morally becomes a choice; a sense of responsibility is incurred--both to oneself and to others; and the idea triumphs that we should do what we know or think is right because it's right and not because we have to. There will be few proctors in the real world; therefore, moral choices must ultimately come from within.

The fact that we may be incapable of maintaining an atmosphere in which people trust each other and have a stake in making sure that that trust is not violated--by themselves or anyone else--means that something is wrong in these hallowed halls. Ideally, we would not need an honor code to have unproctored exams; people would live their lives by an internal sense of integrity. But the fact that Harvard decided after much consideration not to try an honor code demands a serious moral inquiry. It forces us to ask: Is there honor at Harvard?

Should Harvard forever abandon the idea of instituting an honor code? Rudenstine admitted he didn't know. He added that we would have to take Harvard's temperature--of faculty and students alike--to see if an honor code could work. I would like to think Harvard could handle it, that Harvard students could maintain the honor their signatures imply. But maybe that will have to wait another 360 years.