The Class of 2019 gathered in the Academic Village on Thursday morning to celebrate and reflect upon honesty, integrity, responsibility and respect, the four values that comprise the Elon Honor Code.
Led by Student Government Association President Avery Steadman, with additional remarks by Elon President Lambert Leo M. Lambert, Class of 2019 president Kenneth Brown Jr., and Elon alumna Jasmine Turner ‘15, the program highlighted all four of the honor code’s tenets: honesty, integrity responsibility and respect, with the greatest emphasis placed on “respect.”
“Elon’s academic 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 the campus,” Steadman said in her Sept. 10 welcoming remarks. “Whether we are in classrooms or residence halls, on a playing field or in the library, at an internship or at a party, studying abroad or using the internet, we are honor bound by the values of honesty, integrity, responsibility and respect.
As the class begins its academic journey, reaching full potential requires that students respect themselves, Brown said. He told his classmates to value themselves as people of worth, have pride in the people they are, and recognize their own abilities and unique contributions to the community.
Be open to sharing stories, perspectives and skills with others.
“Respect is an essential component of living in community and is foundational to living an honest, ethical life in which we accept responsibility for the effects of our behavior on others,” Brown said. “Without respect, none of us can reach can our full potential and the community as a whole suffers.”
“But I also want to encourage us to recognize that respecting others is a call to action, a charge to be bold and to move beyond what we may find comfortable – it calls us to actively engage and learn from others who may be different including learning how to be involved in productive and, yes at times, difficult dialogues.
Turner, a young alumna from Richmond, Virginia, now working as a television reporter in North Carolina, told students that “Elon means different things to different people” but that experiences and the values of the university will stay with them for life.
“The world today needs more respect. We live in a turbulent time, and there are people full of hate and rage,” Turner said. “It seems like everywhere you look, every time you check your notifications or turn on your television there’s some sort of injustice happening.
“In my time at Elon, I saw it take place, right on this campus. But in all of that darkness that seemed to loom over so many days, when I really think about it, acceptance and respect were there in the response to incidents of racism, sexism and homophobia, whether through one person that stood up and said ‘enough is enough’ or communities that came together for change and social justice. They are the ones who in the darkness, sought the light of admiration of what is good, valuable and important.”
The Class of 2019 is fortunate to be at an institution of higher learning that wants students to see the world and to stand up for what they know is right, Turner said. She added that Elon is a place where the values of the honor code are four things that so many people take for granted.
Lambert concluded the ceremony the Class of 2019 in reciting the Honor Code:
· 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.