As a residential community and an academic institution, there are few things we value more than honesty and integrity. In a recenty assembly, faculty and student speakers discussed the concept and importance of academic honesty here at Middlesex.
To open the assembly, Alex Rego '15 confessed that he hadn't thought much about integrity in the classroom until he was asked to speak about it. When pressed to find a comprehensive definition of integrity, Alex eventually found one that resonated with him: wholeness of character. "It's about living within your values, whatever those may be," said Alex. He described an experiment in which researchers dropped a wallet in front of bystanders to see what they would do. As it turns out, people walking in pairs or groups were more likely to return the wallet than were individuals. "It makes sense," commented Alex. "We want to be perceived by others as having integrity." To bring it back to Middlesex, Alex concluded that integrity is vitally important to our community because "it is mutual trust that makes this place special."
Cal Hitzrot, Chair of the Social Sciences Division and holder of the Harrison S. Kravis '90 Chair in Economics and History, recalled the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong, famed seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor who admitted to taking banned performance-enhancing substances. Armstrong had his titles stripped and was banned from competitive cycling, and Mr. Hitzrot confessed how utterly "soul-crushing" it was to admire a man for his courage and toughness, only to discover that he was not a man of integrity after all. As tempting as it is to want to be the very best, cautioned Mr. Hitzrot, it should not be the goal. "The goal we, as teachers, want for our students is that they make progress and do good work. Whether your work is inspiring or lackluster, the important thing is that it is YOURS."