Oxy’s old Honor Code used to be pretty strict. It used to be that if Student A saw Student B cheating on a test, Student A would rap his/her pencil on the desk to let Student B know. If Student B didn’t stop cheating, Student A could turn them in. Like a police state. Neat system.

I don’t want Oxy’s newer Honor Code to become an excuse for a police state. I also believe that Oxy students should follow rules in good conscience, and not follow them just because they are rules. Oxy’s administration should do the same.

Oxy’s new ASOC Honor Code, so far, applies strictly to students. It is, after all, an ASOC Constitution. Students aren’t supposed to take unfair advantage of other students or other members of the Occidental Community. This code of conduct is not reciprocated. It is not claimed in Faculty or Administration codes, to my knowledge, that members of the Occidental Community shall not take unfair advantage of one another. And it should be. I think that however we define Honor, it is certain that the definition shouldn’t just apply to students at Oxy, it should be a central idea of the Occidental community. We shouldn’t hold students to a higher standard than the administration. I don’t think the administration has necessarily upheld the Honor Code in recent actions, and I certainly think the discussion needs to happen. Maybe recent actions by the Administration haven’t violated the Honor Code. But even so, shouldn’t everyone in the Oxy community be obliged to not take unfair advantage of members of the same community? Even though the Honor Code doesn’t apply to administrators, shouldn’t they be following it anyway?