Education: Virginia’s Honor

Drinking at the University of Virginia used to be scientific. An earnest youth would begin to tipple at night, keep at it until noon the next day. Then he would stop, survey himself anxiously. Would his intoxication last until night? . . . Most students found it did not. But the reason for trying was that at university dances it was forbidden to drink. To enter the ballroom one was obliged to swear that he had drunk no spirits since noon. This pledge was kept remarkably inviolate by the young gentlemen of Virginia. Last week, as an experiment, the University honor committee lifted the pledge during Easter week dances, because it “is considered a misapplication of the principles of honor; and the necessity for such a pledge is a reflection upon our conceptions of gentlemanly conduct.”