Bradley '65 to speak at integrity assembly

Bill Bradley '65 will address the University community on Sunday at a new assembly addressing the importance of integrity. Lizzie Biney-Amissah '04 and English professor John Fleming GS '63 will also speak at the event to be held at 7 p.m. Sunday on Cannon Green.

Eli Goldsmith '04, Honor Committee chairman and an event organizer, said the focus of the event was integrity rather than the Honor Code or the University disciplinary process.

"We spend a lot of time explaining the nuts and bolts of our discipline systems," Goldsmith said. "We hope [the assembly] will serve as a model of how to reemphasize why these values are important, not just what they are."

Last year, the Honor Code was amended twice — once by USG vote and once by student referendum — changing the role of the procedural adviser, moving the authority over appeals to the Dean of the College and allowing an accused student to bring a representative to the initial Honor Committee hearing.

Jonathan Chavkin '05 proposed the referendum last year, in which students voted on four amendments, one of which passed.

"I have always said that I think the honor code in theory is a good idea and academic integrity is incredibly important," he said. "Where I have reservations about the code is how it's implemented, not the ideal of it."

Goldsmith said recent events — such as last year's publicized cases of academic fraud and national scandals such as Enron and WorldCom — provided the greatest motivation for the assembly.

"We would hope students come out with a greater appreciation for why integrity is so important within a community of scholars and also how it relates to our professional futures and adulthood," he said.

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Goldsmith said that all speakers were the first choices of the organizers. Bradley, the keynote speaker, was a Rhodes Scholar, played professional basketball and served as a U.S. senator. Goldsmith called him "a perfect choice."

"He has involved himself in a broad range of professional occupations," Goldsmith said. "There are students who disagree with his politics, but we don't know of his integrity ever being questioned."

Goldsmith described Fleming as "more engaged in campus life than any other faculty member." In addition, Fleming is a faculty adviser to the Honor Committee.

Biney-Amissah, the only student speaker, was selected because of her role as a respected leader on campus and her involvement in a diverse group of activities on campus, Goldsmith said. President of the Cap and Gown Club, Biney-Amissah is a molecular biology major who is also earning a certificate in East Asian Studies.

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Biney-Amissah said she saw the assembly as an opportunity to emphasize a value students often forget.

"We all get to school and get the Rules, Rights and Responsibilities booklet. It's something you put on your bookshelf and don't really think about," she said. "The need to do well here . . . causes people to do things they wouldn't normally do . . . It's important people realize that's not okay."

Goldsmith said it was unclear whether or not this assembly would be repeated in future years.

"We would very much like this to be an annual event," he said. "But with such an outstanding lineup, it will be difficult to find comparable speakers in subsequent years."