Cadet Honor Code

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point

West Point's Cadet Honor Code reads simply that

Cadets accused of violating the Honor Code face a standardized investigative and hearing process ([2]). First they are tried by a jury of their peers. If they are found guilty, the case will go up to the Commandant of the Academy who will give his recommendation, then to the 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 Academy.

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

1. Does this action attempt to deceive anyone or allow anyone to be deceived?
2. Does this action gain or allow the gain of privilege or advantage to which I or someone else would not otherwise be entitled?
3. Would I be dissatisfied 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 Academy itself. When the Academy was founded in 1802, the officer corps operated on a simple code of honor—an officer's word was his bond. Sylvanus Thayer, Superintendent of the Academy from 1817 to 1833, explicitly banned cheating as part of his efforts to increase the Academy'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 “Cadet 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."

In August 1951, 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."

The Army arranged for an investigation headed by famed jurist 79-year-old Judge Learned Hand. The investigating 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.

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. 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.

Virginia Military Institute

"Above all else, cadets are men and women of honor and integrity who can always be trusted. They live by a simple code, The VMI Honor Code, which states that “A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those who do.” The Code pervades all aspects of a cadet’s life. A cadet’s honor is his/her most guarded possession. The education of new cadets about the Honor System is the responsibility of the Honor Court. The Honor Court is composed of first and second class cadets elected by their classmates. In addition to education, the Honor Court is also responsible for adjudicating reported violations of the Honor Code. The VMI Honor System is unique in that it is a single sanction system. The system does not recognize degrees of honor. The sanction for any breach of honor is dismissal. So, when new cadets sign the book on matriculation day they are committing themselves to a life of honesty and integrity. If their commitment is not complete, their stay at the Institute may be short." VMI is the only military academy or college in the United States that has a single-sanction honor system. Cadets found guilty of an honor violation at VMI are still dismissed in a Drum Out Ceremony.

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 Academy, and has been handed down to every subsequent class. The code adopted was based largely on West Point's Honor Code, but was modified slightly to its current wording:

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 Wing at the conclusion of Basic Cadet Training. The oath consists of a statement of the code, followed by a resolution to live honorably:

Cadets are considered the "guardians and stewards" of the Code. Cadet honor representatives throughout the Wing oversee the honor system by conducting education classes and investigating possible honor incidents. Cadets throughout the Wing are expected to sit on Honor Boards as 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. This "honor probation" is usually only reserved for cadets in their first two years at the Academy.

Norwich University, Texas A&M University, The Citadel

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 Code demands that a cadet does not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do. Civilian Students at these schools are also required to adhere to an honor code.

In popular culture

The 2005 ESPN made-for-TV movie 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 West Point football team. The film was nominated for two awards.

The song 'Intolerance' by the rock band Tool makes specific mention of the Honor Code.

The 1975 TV movie 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. 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.