OPINION

Dissent: It's not up to the Honor Committee

By Daily Princetonian Editorial Board
Staff
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Published: Monday, April 14th, 2008
The majority's effort to grapple with the ethical question posed by psychostimulants like Adderall is admirable and necessary in a community that values academic integrity. Any attempt to have the Honor Code address the use of such substances, however, is impractical.

Not every act that is illegal is a violation of the Honor Code, and not every legal act is permissible under the Code. Certainly, illegal Adderall use gives an advantage to students willing to violate the law; theft of non-circulating reference materials from University libraries, however, confers the same advantage and is not an Honor Code violation. The distinction between the law and the Honor Code is critical and must be preserved.

The performance-enhancing properties of these drugs do not per se provide cause for their ban. Coffee, energy drinks and caffeine pills may act on the body in a different way than drugs such as Adderall do, but each can enhance academic performance. Energy drinks for instance, claim to prolong the time one is able to study. The majority does not justify its position that one form of performance enhancement is inherently more objectionable than the other. Unprescribed pyschostimulant use cannot logically be made an Honor Code violation without revising currently accepted notions of academic integrity.

Dan Rauch '10 and Will Pickering '11

Ken Schwartz '09 abstained from voting.

Reader Comments

View all 5 comments on "Dissent: It's not up to the Honor Committee".

  • 12:03 p.m. on April 16th, 2008
    Posted by Crusty Alum

    I don't think you sound petty at all Huzzah. The same could be said for all "honor codes" that are only academic in nature. I just hold PU to a higher standard. Those other codes, and Princeton's, should be "honest" and just call themselves an "Academic Code". There's nothing wrong with that, it just doesn't have the patina that true "Honor Codes" or "Honor Systems" have. That the school tries to pretend it has an honor code is dishonest. In my mind, there are very few schools that have a true honor code -- the service academies, Washington & Lee University, and UVA all come to mind.

  • 1:13 a.m. on April 16th, 2008
    Posted by Huzzah

    At the risk of sounding petty, Crusty Alum, can't the same be said for almost every academic "honor" code in this country? Or am I just missing something here?

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