TRUST that is the University of Virginia."To a person unacquainted with the university, this phrase, offered at first-year student convocation, may not mean much beyond a nice welcome. For incoming students, however, it is a powerful statement about their new university community's expectations for responsible citizenship. It is one of many such messages that these students have likely heard during the preceding several months and presages many more such statements to come.
The messages that the University of Virginia (UVA) sends to students about responsible citizenship begin early and take numerous forms. High school students interested in UVA may hear such statements during a campus tour. It may be the first time but will certainly not be the last that prospective students hear about student self-governance and other aspects of the educational vision and philosophies of Thomas Jefferson, the school's founder. Nor will it be the last time that prospective students hear about the impor-tance of honor and the privileges that the honor code is believed to foster within the UVA community of trust. In fact, even students who apply to UVA sign honor pledges on their application form. During the summer before they enroll, students who accept admission to UVA receive "On My Honor," a DVD reinforcing the importance of integrity at their new academic home. A few days before classes begin, the first-year student convocation and honor induction ceremonies take place at the Lawn, the original campus setting designed by Jefferson.The dean of students welcomes new students to the community of trust that is the University of Virginia, and the president describes the social compact that exists among UVA students, who are responsible for governing themselves.As they graduate, students earn praise for succeeding at a unique institution organized by its founder to be a small democracy and listen to a commencement speaker who typically assures them that the honor system will serve them well throughout their lives.