The Faltering Gray Line

"A Cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal nor tolerate those who do." So states the honor code at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This week trials begin for 49 cadets, each of whom will try to prove to a board of Army officers that, in fact, he did not breach the code while preparing a homework assignment. The cheating scandal, the largest at West Point since 1951, when more than half the football team was involved, has rocked the academy's self-image, while raising serious questions about the code.

Honor Boards. The charges stem from a take-home assignment given in March to 800 junior-year cadets in the Electrical Engineering 304 course. When instructors noticed that groups of papers had unusual similarities they asked the 88-member Cadet Honor Committee to investigate. In the end, 49 cadets were exonerated and 49--by unanimous votes of twelve-member honor boards--were found to have violated the code; three other cadets have admitted their guilt and resigned. Those of the 49 cadets tried and found guilty will be dismissed unless either the Superintendent of the Academy or the Secretary of the Army overturns the verdict.

The scandal has touched off both criticism of and strong cadet support for the code. According to Plebe John Cook. the strictly enforced code "means you can trust each other completely." Adds Senior Cadet Hank Keirsey: "It's just something you accept absolutely. People's lives depend on our integrity." But another cadet complains that the "code doesn't really develop integrity because it is based on fear."

Cadet Honor Committee Chairman William Andersen argues that the code is weakened when the automatic punishment of expulsion is meted out without consideration given to the circumstances of the violation. When asked to vote on the issue last February, 55% of the cadet corps were in favor of easing the code if there were mitigating circumstances. The measure failed to carry, however, because it fell short of the required two-thirds majority.

The trials could go on until August. In the meantime, the 49 accused cadets are living a normal West Point existence. They are not being officially shunned, because the traditional punishment of silence--which forbade other cadets to eat or speak with anyone who had violated the honor code--was abolished in 1973. "No one is talking about bringing that back," said Brigadier General Walter F. Ulmer Jr., commandant of cadets. But, he added, "I'm sure there are individual cadets who will decide not to go to a movie or a restaurant with those 49." Says one of their classmates: "I'd just as soon stay away from them."

In a separate case, a plebe claims that he has been harassed by his fellow cadets since the West Point superintendent overturned a ruling that he had committed an honor-code violation last August. Steven R. Verr had been accused of lying to other cadets when asked why he was crying outside the mess hall. He told them that his parents had been injured in a car accident, but later admitted the tears resulted from frustration and hunger. A long-distance runner who claims he needs extra calories, Verr said he had been kept from finishing a meal by upperclassmen--a hazing ritual at the Point. Since the superintendent's ruling in March, Verr claims that, among other things, his mail has been opened or marked "Returned to sender."

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