Catawba College freshmen pledged this week to uphold the college’s honor code in a ceremony that invited all the students to walk down the aisle in Omwake-Dearborn Chapel and sign the code in the presence of their peers.

This is the first time that the college has conducted an honor ceremony since the code was established in the late 1980s.

“We’re doing this because symbolism and ritual speak to the emotions in a way that logical statements often can’t,” said Dr. William Christie, dean of the college. “We’re trying to appeal to the students, intellectually and emotionally, to make a public commitment to the ideals that we want them to live by during their four years here.”

Dr. Carl Girelli, director of orientation, told the group on Tuesday that the ritual was a time “to hold up the virtues of respect, civility and, foremost, honor.”

The Catawba College honor code reads: “As a member of the Catawba College community, I will practice academic honesty, communicate truthfully and show respect for the rights and property of others. I will also encourage others in the community to behave honorably.”

Christie told the freshmen about his undergraduate experience at Washington & Lee University, where adherence to the honor code was strict, but not oppressive.

“We did not live in fear,” he said. “We lived in an environment of trust.”

The lockers in the gym were misnamed, Christie said. “We never locked them. Our fellow students were honest. We trusted one another.”

Living under such an honor code had a transforming effect, according to Christie. “It is important for you to understand why it works,” he said. “The honor code works because the students make it work. They want it to work, because they know how valuable it is in their lives.”

He told the students that they will determine how successful Catawba’s honor code is. “If you want a strong honor code, if you want to live in an atmosphere of trust and decency and civility, then you are the ones who can make it happen,” he said.

“The faculty cannot make that decision. The administration cannot make that decision. Only you can make it. And that is the challenge I leave you with, to have the courage and self-discipline to live your lives with honor and decency and to expect the same of others.”

Todd Bachman, the Student Government Association president, quoted Madison Sarratt, a former dean of Vanderbilt University, who once told his students: “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good people in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good people in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.”