Hawken Senate Ratifies Integrity Code

 

After months of brainstorming, rephrasing, and quibbling about semantics, the Hawken Senate and the Hawken Integrity Council jointly unveiled their ninth draft of the Integrity Code in a town hall-style meeting on January 13th. Students in particular leapt at the chance to have some input into school policy, and the presentation soon became an all-inclusive and sincere discussion as to the nature of integrity and its place at Hawken.

 

The ninth draft of the code read as follows:

 

 

The general purpose of the code is to allow students greater transparency as to how HIC decisions are made by describing the standard to which Hawken expects students to aspire. In a larger sense, though, the code also attempts to put into words the existing values and ethos of Hawken as a whole. “It’s more descriptive than prescriptive,” Senator Murray clarified. In some ways, explained Senator Tate, the code doesn’t define integrity as much as it “describes how integrity lives in the Hawken community… what it means to us.”

The town hall meeting was an opportunity for people to ask questions, make suggestions, and point out elements of the code that were confusing or uncomfortable. Students and faculty were encouraged to come down to the front of the auditorium, bringing the community physically closer while we embarked on this thoughtful and occasionally controversial conversation.

 

Community members raised several concerns, including the broad question of how necessary the code really is, the more specific observation that the code does little to acknowledge the importance of kindness, focusing instead on negative attributes, and the common fear it may imply that a single action can permanently taint one’s character. Ryan Stefancik expressed his concern about the code’s indoctrinating feel. Senior Saeed Jackson and sophomore Caroline Hurwitz both advocated for a mention of forgiveness, to lessen the judgmental feel of the code. Mr. Breisch similarly noted the “static” feel of the line “I am a person of character,” and recommended that the code reflect the fact that character is constantly in development. The word he suggested, “striving,” has been incorporated into the latest version of this line, which now continues, “striving to be my better self.”

 

A common misperception was that the code would set a double standard by applying only to students. Yet as Ms. Clark pointed out, faculty members are just as much a part of the Hawken community as students are. A couple students mentioned afterwards feeling bitter that teachers never have to go in front of the HIC. The teachers, however, have an entirely different perspective on that point: “We don’t get to go in front of the HIC,” said Senator Harris, “It’s one-on-one, behind closed doors.”

 

Despite what many students may have feared, the code was not already set in stone at the time of the meeting. It has in fact already undergone several significant changes based on feedback gathered during the assembly. After two long Senate meetings, the code is now on its eleventh draft, and the conversation is far from over. The Senate and Integrity Council took student suggestions to heart and are trying hard to incorporate all of them while retaining the elegant clarity of the original draft. Just a few days after the town hall meeting, Senate Chair Mr. Harris presented a revised version to the school. This version mentioned compassion and justice alongside fair play, and included the qualifier “every day” before “my words and actions reflect my character” to emphasize that we, too, are not set in stone. Senator Harris and senior Ryan Stefancik, one of the most vocal at the town hall meeting, also planned a brief dialogue once again attempting to explain why Hawken needs such a code. If the school intends to advise on issues of integrity, it is only “fair play” for the community to understand and approve of a consistent definition of integrity.

 

Regardless, some students still have qualms about the code. “You feel like you’re going to get into more trouble,” said Liz Naylor ’11, “It’s just another thing to go against.” Many others share this fear, especially because the first person style of the code makes it sound much like an oath, and one that is particularly hard to live up to completely. Classmate Terra Writz added, “It makes us sound really snotty.” Yet Mr. Cleminshaw, head of the HIC, did mention that it is practically unheard of for a school to have an Integrity Council without an Integrity Code. The newer version’s addition of the word “justice” distressed some sophomores, who remarked that the word seems to imply punishment. As well, freshman Lena Goren pointed out that the replacement of “I am a person of character” with “I am a person of integrity” makes the definition somewhat circular.

 

In addition to handling multiple sometimes conflicting pieces of advice from the community, the Senate and HIC also face internal disagreement. Mr. Cleminshaw was initially uncertain about adding compassion and justice to the list of beliefs, thinking it might dilute the emphasis on fair play. In the latest Senate meeting, a dispute arose over the use of the word “reflect,” which Senators Rabe and Moeller among others noticed implies that character is something pre-existing. Senator Weiskopf proposed a shorter version that would highlight the ideological portions of the code and omit more concrete lines such as “I choose not to lie, cheat, or steal.”

 

It will likely take several more meetings and drafts before the code is ready to be ratified, but the Senate and HIC welcome the interest and opposition from students and teachers. The town hall meeting not only represented these representative bodies reaching out to the community as a whole, but the community reaching back, engaging each other in a school wide thought-provoking and sophisticated conversation about integrity and character.

As a result of the town hall meeting and subsequent debate in the Senate, the final draft of the Hawken Honor Code reads as follows: