UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA


Honor System, as this phase of student government forms the keystone of the entire
system.
 In addition to permitting student legislation on questions of interest to the mem-
bers of the Student Body, execution of the laws passed, and the expenditure of student
funds, the governing system at the University gives to the students the privilege of
disciplining themselves through the Honor System. Inaugurated by some of our
greatest educators in higher institutions of the nation and early adopted in some de-
partments of the University of Florida, the Honor System was finally established in
the entire University in 1914 as the result of student initiative. This plan, having met
with the approval of all officials of the University, was given the sanction of the Board
of Control, and student representatives were selected by the students to administer the
system.
 Among the basic principles of an Honor System are the convictions that self-
discipline is the greatest builder of character, that responsibility is a prerequisite of self-
respect, and that these are essential to the highest type of education. Officials of the
University and the Board of Control feel that students in the University of Florida
should be assumed to be honest and worthy of trust, and they display this confidence by
means of an Honor System.
 The success of the system is dependent upon the honor of each individual member
of the student body in that: (1) he is duty-bound to abide by the principles of the
Honor Code, and (2) he is further pledged to report to the Honor Court such viola-
tions of the Code as he may observe.
 Many men and women coming to the University for the first time feel hesitant
about assuming this responsibility, inasmuch as early school training has created feelings
of antipathy toward one who "tattle-tales" on a fellow-student. The theory of an
Honor System adequately overcomes this natural reaction, however, when it is realized
that this system is a student institution itself, and not a faculty measure for student
discipline, and that to be worthy of the advantages of the Honor System each student
must be strong enough to do his duty in this regard. In this way the responsibility
for each student's conduct is placed where it must eventually rest-on himself.
 The Honor Code of the Student Body is striking in its simplicity; yet it embodies
the fundamentals of sound character. Each student is pledged to refrain from:
 (a) cheating, (b) stealing, (c) obtaining money or credit for worthless checks.
 On the basis of this Code, students are extended all privileges conceived to be the
basic right of students of Honor. There are no proctors or spies in the examination
rooms, each student feeling free to do his work, or to leave the room as occasion
arises. Secondly, fruits and supplies are placed openly on the campus, with the con-
fidence that each student will pay for any he may take. This system makes each
student the keeper of his own conscience until he has proved to his fellow-students
that he no longer deserves the trust placed in him.
 A breach of the System may be flagrant and serious, or it may be extenuated by
circumstances. It may need only mild corrective measures to help the violator obtain
a finer conception of right and wrong; it may need strong measures. To enforce the
System equitably the students have established the Honor Court. The Court is com-
posed of twelve students and a chancellor all of whom are elected annually from the
upper classes of the various colleges on the campus. Any student convicted by this
Court has the right of appeal from its ruling to the Faculty Discipline Committee. A
tribute to the efficiency of the Honor Court in its existence on the Florida campus is