Members of the Class of 2010 pledged to uphold Elon's academic and social honor codes during the university's first Call to Honor ceremony, held Thursday, Sept. 7 in Koury Center. Details...
Student officers from each class and two alumni members passed the symbolic torch of honor to the newest Elon students, who each lit a candle to commit themselves to the values that are at the heart of the Elon community.
All four class presidents spoke during the ceremony, introducing values they believed important for the Class of 2010 to uphold: integrity, respect, responsibility and civility.
Carson Foushee, senior class president, called integrity the most central of Elon’s values.
>>Listen to Foushee’s remarks about integrity…
Newly-elected freshman class president Maria Wyka said civility is important not just to the image of freshmen but the entire community.
“We will have fun, but never at the expense of an individual or group,” Wyka said. “We will take on the challenge to improve ourselves and reflect positively on all other Elon University students.”
President Leo M. Lambert led students in a recitation of the Call to Honor, which reads:
“Today we are entrusted with the honorable legacy of Elon University, dedicated to the intellectual, personal and spiritual growth of all its members, to the advancement of knowledge for the good of all, and to the service of local, national and global communities. To that end, we affirm our commitment to the core values of our university:
- “We commit ourselves to Integrity, to be true to our personal values and honest in our relationships with others.
- “We commit ourselves to show Respect for the worth of other persons and the dignity of creation.
- “We commit ourselves to Responsibility, to meet our obligations for our own wellbeing and to care for the health of the university.
- “We commit ourselves to Civility, honoring one another in all our differences, treating one another as we wish to be treated.
“With these commitments we join generations of Elon students as bearers of its honor.”
Following the ceremony, students were given an Elon University coin inscribed with the word “honor” to serve as a reminder of their obligations to the honor codes and to each other.
“It really felt good to be part of something like that,” freshman Kelly Barry of Southboro, Mass., said after the ceremony. “Not a lot of schools have special ceremonies like that.”
Freshman Kyle Banks of Chicago agreed. “I thought it was really good to bring everyone together to talk about the values of the school. It’s tough to only pick four values, but I think Elon did a good job of picking the values that are important to the school.”