Call to Honor celebrates Elon values with Class of 2018

Elon University held its ninth annual Call to Honor program Thursday as new students took part in a ceremony that allowed campus leaders to share how members of the community are expected to live by the principles of the Elon Honor Code.

Honesty, integrity, responsibility and respect were the focus of a morning program in the Academic Village that opened with a moment of silence to remember victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Elon University senior Joseph Incorvia, executive president of the Student Government Association, outlined what honesty, integrity and respect mean to the campus community. As Incorvia delivered his remarks, officers for the senior, junior and sophomore classes signed their names to the Call to Honor Book, which includes signatures from alumni dating to 1936.

“We come together to celebrate our commitment to academic citizenship and the values that bind us together as members of the Elon University community,” Incorvia said. “Elon’s acadmemic and social honor codes have been joined into a unified code to remind us that Elon’s principles of honor apply to us both on and off campus. No matter where we may be in the world, we are honor bound by the values of honesty, integrity, responsibility and respect.”

Respect yourself and others, Incorvia said, and respect Elon. Be truthful in your studies and in your relationships with others, refusing to engage in harmful behavior. And live with integrity by letting your core values guide you, he added.

Theodore “Giles” Roll, president of the Class of 2018, followed Incorvia’s address with an explanation of “responsibility.”

“Responsibility can be one of the hardest virtues to maintain in any college setting,” Roll said. “It is your responsibility to work diligently on group projects, balance the time you spend on academic and service activities, stand up for what you believe in and be the first to admit when you’ve done wrong.

“If you see someone being bullied, step in. If you see someone throw trash on the sidewalk, pick it up. If you see the environment suffering, speak out. In today’s global community, we have a responsibility to ourselves and to each other to always consider the consequences of our actions.”

Students heard from Elon University President Leo M. Lambert and Rachaele Andrews ’14, a young alumna from Texas who told students that she shared many of the same feelings four years earlier at the start of her own collegiate studies. She challenged students to uphold the honor code’s four tenets and to recognize that “all exquisite things start with a strong foundation.”

“Elon carefully selected you out of numerous other college applicants, and as the proud students of this prestigious university, I challenge you to be loyal to what will one day be your alma mater,” Andrews said. “Be loyal in your choices, be loyal in your involvements, but most of all be loyal to your commitment to being a positive force in our community here at Elon and in the global community hereafter.”

Lambert led the Class of 2018 in reciting the Honor Code:

“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 honesty, being truthful in our academic work and in our relationships with others.

· We commit ourselves to show integrity, being trustworthy, fair and ethical.

· We commit ourselves to responsibility, being accountable for our actions and for our learning.

· We commit ourselves to respect, being civil, valuing the dignity of each person, and respecting the physical and intellectual property of others.

“With these commitments we join generations of Elon students as bearers of its honor.”

Students each received a small Elon coin following the ceremony and signed their names to nearby posters printed with the Elon Honor Code.