One of the four aims of a BYU education is 'to build character, create and develop faith, and make men and women of strength and courage, fortitude, and service.' To this end, students are required to take religion courses, teachers are required to incorporate moral discussion in their coursework, and everyone is required to live by the BYU Honor Code.
Other schools with similar goals for students' character -- especially military institutions -- also employ honor codes and hold students to strict behavioral guidelines, although BYU's Honor Code is broader and more specific than most.
The full text of the BYU Honor Code fills over three pages in the course catalog, with dozens of pages of supplementary text and administrative guidelines posted at the Honor Code Office Web site.
In contrast, the Honor Code used at military schools like West Point and the Air Force Academy, with slight variations, is a single sentence: 'We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate who does.'
This difference is significant, but the biggest difference between BYU and other schools, where honor codes are concerned, is education: For a school that requires its students to adhere strictly to a very detailed and nuanced Honor Code, BYU makes little formal effort to educate students on the specifics of Honor Code compliance, compared to other schools.
At the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., cadets receive the equivalent of 42 credit hours of formal Honor Code education. According to Capt. Shane Coyne, Honor Education Officer and one of 23 full-time employees at the AFA Center for Character Development, the education is frontloaded, so first- and second-year cadets receive fact-based lessons in Honor Code policy and third- and fourth-year cadets hear from guest speakers and leaders who help them think about the Honor Code as it applies 'to active duty and to life in general.'
'We try to not get legalistic about it or educate on a rule or regulation kind of thing, but we try to treat the Honor Code as a precept or principle of doing the right thing. We look at it as a lifelong process to live honorably, ethically and to build character,' Coyne said.
Most Honor Code administration is done by students. There are 180 cadets on the Cadet Wing Honor Committee, where they organize investigations and trials for suspected violators.
Most of the AFA Honor Committee's work, however, involves educating the squadrons on Honor Code expectations and implications. Coyne said formally educating cadets on the Honor Code is vital to helping them internalize the principles, and that peer education is a very important tool.
'We do everything we can to make it a cadet-run, non-legal system, which is very effective compared to having me go as an officer and shove these things at them. We have elected honor representatives who are trained, and they actually teach the lessons to their classmates. This is particularly effective because it's the cadets' code and not just something enforced by the powers that be,' Coyne said.
'There are cynics out there who say you can't teach a person honor and if you don't have it from your parents you're never going to learn, but I still believe we make differences here. I can't give a percentage, but I know we make a difference. I talk to people every day who say that somehow, some way we helped them become better people and helped them develop their character,' Coyne said.
Coyne said the most common violations are cheating in academics and lying about whereabouts. While other infractions occur, anything not dealing with lying, cheating or stealing is considered not a violation of the Honor Code but a violation of any of a number of rules and regulations.
'We have regulations and we have the Honor Code ... violations of both are serious and can have similar consequences, but they are handled by different systems,' Coyne said. Coyne said he thinks this separation 'keeps the spirit of the Honor Code pure.'
Like the Air Force Academy, the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., also makes internalization of Honor Code principles a top priority, in the interest of creating military leaders with unshakeable ethical foundations.
Cadets at West Point take 44 credit hours of formal Honor Code Education in progressive course like 'Spirit of the Honor Code,' 'Army Values,' and 'Army Professional Ethos.'
Virginia Military Institute has a similar system.
A survey conducted by NewsNet suggests that BYU students feel a need for more formal Honor Code education. Fifty-four percent of the students surveyed said they did not have a complete understanding of the Honor Code.
Two students who participated in the NewsNet survey mentioned independently that they thought the Honor Code rules at Ricks College were more clearly explained and better enforced than the rules at BYU.
'There I could tell you every rule,' one woman told her interviewer. 'Here I couldn't tell you. I kind of have an idea, but I don't know for sure.'
BYU administrators, however, say a formal system of Honor Code education similar to the ones employed at military schools probably wouldn't work here, largely because students are not excited by the prospect.
Over 90 percent of the students in the NewsNet survey said they would be unlikely to take an elective class about the Honor Code if it were offered, and would be unenthusiastic about taking such a class if it were required for religion credit.
Ted Hindmarsh, a counselor at the Honor Code Office, said students at BYU have several means of learning about Honor Code expectations: Ecclesiastical endorsements, the course catalogs, the Internet, church discussions, housing contracts, Honor Code Office pamphlets, information desks, and peer conversation.
Hindmarsh said he thinks the student reaction to the survey question about a formal Honor Code course demonstrates not a lack of interest in honor but a lack of time: students have enough to worry about as they try to finish school without having to squeeze additional required courses into their schedules.
'Students say, `I already know it. It's preached to me all the time, in class and at home and at church.' I'm not sure students would rush to fill it, because I generally think it's been covered ... I think you'll find it, in part, in most BYU classes because somehow nearly every subject ties into the gospel,' Hindmarsh said.
'It ought to be a part of every course we teach. Let's not have a course on integrity, let's have it acutally be a part of all the curriculum,' Hindmarsh said.
NewsNet reporter Stephen Smith contributed to this story.