the ethicist

Author: Amanda Greene

How much attention is actually paid to the Honor Code? The Honor Code, signed on each and every paper, exam and project is a phrase that each Middlebury student, at the completion of his or her first term, can recite on command. Yet I wonder if the prevalence of the Honor Code, and its pervasiveness on campus, causes students to overlook its importance and to forget how lucky we are to live and study in an environment that believes in our honesty and our integrity.

Middlebury students are trusted. We are given the opportunity to take exams wherever we want them, without the presence of proctors or professors. Students are expected to act responsibly and are encouraged to cultivate a sense of morality that is born out of internal motivation to act ethically, and not out of policies that make it impossible to cheat. We act morally not because we have to, but because we want to.

The bottom line is that Middlebury students could cheat if they wanted to. There is no one shadowing the student who takes the sociology exam in the library instead of the classroom. The take-home Introduction to Economics exam could be completed with help from the senior who can recite everything about supply and demand from memory. But the majority of the time, assignments are completed without unauthorized aid. Midd-kids do pay attention to the Honor Code, and they sign the pledge not just out of habit but also with a deeper understanding of what it means to be moral.

What do we do, then, when students rely on forms of help, such as un-prescribed Adderall, that are not explicitly forbidden by the Honor Code? Perhaps it's time to amend the code so that certain individuals do not have advantages that their peers lack. This dilemma is the focus of this week's question:

Q: A substantial number of my friends obtain and take unprescribed Adderall as a study aid. With the help of the drugs, they are able to work for many hours without sleeping and with an abnormally strong level of concentration. I feel that their consumption of these drugs gives them unfair advantage on assignments, and ultimately violates the Honor Code because Adderall is a form of unauthorized aid. Does using Adderall for study purposes violate the Honor Code?

-Judiciously Substance Free

A: In order to answer this question in relation to the Honor Code, it is necessary to ignore the illegality of consuming controlled substances without a prescription. Legal domain aside, Adderall, used without instruction from a doctor, does violate the Honor Code. When an individual signs the Honor Code he affirms that he has not received any unauthorized aid on a paper or an exam, and Adderall as a substance that is illicitly obtained, and not freely available like caffeine or chocolate, is unambiguously unauthorized. You would not tell your professor, your parents or your coach that you took Adderall to complete a paper, and this reluctance is indicative of the unethical nature of illicit Adderall consumption. Adderall, as a study aid that is not readily available to everyone, gives some students advantages over others and consequently erodes the level playing field that the Honor Code strives to create.

Have any more questions? Send submissions to amgreene@middlebury.edu.