The Saturday before classes started, groups of 20 to 30 first-years arrived at the Clapp Library Portrait Room in 15-minute intervals, accompanied by their orientation mentors. They quietly made their way past the portraits of Wellesley’s previous presidents to the front of the room, where the Honor Code book awaited them on a stand draped in white cloth. Each first-year signed the book, just as students had done before them for two decades. Chief Justice Erica Norris ’27 welcomed the students as they waited to sign and President Paula A. Johnson, Provost Courtney Coile, and Lisa Rodensky, English professor and dean of academic affairs, stood ready to greet them as they finished.
The book signing was the second part of a program designed to introduce first-years to Wellesley’s Honor Code. The day before, faculty had met with small groups of students to discuss its significance. Rodensky played a video she had created for the event, which featured alums who shared their impressions of the Honor Code, both as students and in their lives beyond Wellesley.
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Students received a pin after signing the Honor Code. -
Students arrived in groups of 20 and 30 to sign the Honor Code book.
The Honor Code, established in 1919, is brief and straightforward: “As a Wellesley College student, I will act with honesty, integrity, and respect. In making this commitment, I am accountable to the community and dedicate myself to a life of honor.” In 2004, the Wellesley College Alumnae Association donated the Honor Code book, and students began signing their names in it.
Over the years, students’ attitudes toward the Honor Code have changed, with many viewing it as a punitive tool rather than a code of ethics. The two orientation events were designed to shift that dynamic. “I really wanted to spread the message that the Honor Code was created for students by students,” says Norris , who, in her role, is responsible for educating the community about the Honor Code and overseeing the Honor Code Council. “We always work to be restorative and rehabilitative. And I really wanted to push that message through.”
In the video, Ruoxi Zhu ’23 said she was “quietly proud” that most of her exams at Wellesley were not proctored: “In the age of AI, this mutual trust in each other that the words we exchange and the expressions that we give each other are our own words and our own formulations, it’s a different form of this quiet trust that I think made Wellesley so special.”
Ava Holwerda ’30 says she was glad Johnson attended the event. “It wasn't just us signing the book and moving on,” she says. “Like, it’s us becoming integrated in the Wellesley culture and fully becoming involved in everything on campus. So it’s cool that she was there, too.”
Sabrina Anders ’30 says she has always thought of Wellesley as a nurturing environment, and making the process of signing the Honor Code more communal and intentional reflects that. She says the code can seem “scary.” “Like if you violate it, you have to be, you know, assessed by a jury of your peers. That’s kind of intimidating,” she says. “But I think the way they did it was a little kinder in having it be a little ceremony, and it made us, at least for me, it made me feel special, which I appreciate.”
“I imagine many Wellesley students who are sitting in orientation are walking into what is a beautiful campus, and I do hope that they can come to see that the Honor Code is even in the very land,” Suzana DeRosa-Farag ’22 said in the video. “[It’s] in the makeup of the space and the way that we dignify each other as we walk through it and participate in its maintenance.”