Seeking a community based on honor, integrity, and awareness of others. Embracing academic and social integrity. Fostering an environment of trust and cooperation. Treating everyone equally regardless of race, culture, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Taking responsibility for your actions and addressing unacceptable situations or behavior.

These are some of the tenets of the new Honor Code at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. And if any of them sound familiar, it’s because two of the medical students involved in its creation are also Haverford alumni—Seth Hollander ’96 and Chris Coletti ’00, both working to reaffirm Jefferson’s commitment to these values and hoping to recreate the atmosphere of mutual trust and respect that had been integral to their undergraduate days.

Seth Hollander came from a large urban public high school in Miami Beach, Fla., marred by violence and racial tension. Weapons, fights, and guard dogs roaming the halls were part of the daily routine. “It was a hard place to be an adolescent,” he says. “Academically and socially, Haverford was a sanctuary.”

Now a fourth-year medical student at Jefferson, Hollander says the Honor Code was a significant part of what attracted him to Haverford. During a campus tour, he heard a speech about the Code in Marshall Auditorium and liked the concept of a trusting community and an open academic environment. “You knew you would be supported and treated fairly, and your work would have value,” he says. When he was a student, the Honor Code was a casually essential part of his everyday life and the lives of his friends. “It changed the way people interacted with each other. My current roommate is a Haverford grad (Brian Girard ’96) and uses Honor Code principles when he talks about a schedule for cleaning the kitchen.”

Unlike Hollander, Chris Coletti attended a private high school in northern New Jersey, a school with its own set of difficulties. Coletti was dismayed that many of his fellow students were not held accountable for their actions, especially by their parents. When he was a senior and president of student council, he and other members—including his brother Ryan ’03, the secretary—wanted to develop a kind of statement that students would sign to acknowledge that they understood the rules of the school and intended to follow them. This became the school’s Honor Code, which focused on issues of cheating, and students who signed it pledged not to give or receive any unauthorized help or information on tests and assignments. “It was indicative of a high school honor code,” says Coletti. “The maturity level is not as high as college.”

At Haverford, he became aware of the Code’s affect on academic matters during Customs Week, when first-year students took the tests to determine their class placements. “The professors left the room,” he says. “They let us know right away that they expected us not to cheat.”

Coletti, now a third-year medical student, felt the loss of the Honor Code keenly at Jefferson, particularly when he tried describing it to some of his classmates. They were skeptical of the unproctored exams. “People would say things like, ‘You cheated anyway, right?’ and ‘I couldn’t have done that.’ They didn’t understand that not cheating was part of Haverford’s social culture. They either didn’t believe me, or they thought I was naïve and everyone else was cheating.”

When Seth Hollander started at Jefferson, he felt a sense of disconnect among students and faculty, especially in the classroom, where he witnessed several examples of mutual disrespect. In his eyes the campus was not united as a community with a common goal: “There was no feeling that we were all on the same side.” Although Jefferson does have a core of faculty and students loyal to the institution, the school’s general mood was, for Hollander, a sea change from the open intimacy of Haverford.

One evening a little over a year ago, Hollander took one of his Jefferson friends, Harper Price, a member of the Jefferson Medical College Curriculum Committee, to visit his alma mater. “Sometimes, people don’t believe what you tell them about Haverford’s Honor Code until they see it for themselves,” he says. Price saw for herself the Comment Board in the Campus Center, the unattended backpacks in the Dining Center, the notes announcing found jewelry and belongings. She read abstracts from recent Honor Council trials, and noticed the litter-free beauty of the campus.
“She was awestruck, really moved,” says Hollander. “She was regretful that she hadn’t had this experience at her high school or college.”

Back at Jefferson, Price described Haverford’s Honor Code to the Curriculum Committee; Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Karen Glaser was a guest at that meeting. “We thought it sounded like the ideal educational environment,” says Glaser, “but some wondered how it could be transplanted from a small Quaker college to an urban academic health center.” Harper approached Curriculum Committee Chairman Philip Wolfson, M.D., who enthusiastically invited Seth Hollander to speak before the committee about his personal dealings with the Code.

Jefferson already had a Shared Code of Professional Values, which affirmed for the future doctors the commitment to treat all patients compassionately and respect their privacy and dignity, advocate outstanding patient care, and always work to improve their knowledge and skills. The school also had a student honor code of conduct focused on cheating and test taking. Glaser appreciated the fact that Haverford’s Honor Code was student-generated. “That’s something we’d been talking about at Jefferson.”

In June of 2002, at the request of Dr. Wolfson and Dr. Susan Rattner, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Jefferson initiated a task force to explore the possibility of a student Honor Code. The task force, co-chaired by Hollander and Glaser, was comprised of students and faculty members and involved many university-wide offices—such as admissions, orientation, facilities, and multicultural affairs—in drafting a proposal of changes to submit to the curriculum committee. Chris Coletti was tapped to write the Code itself, along with classmate Rob Gillespie, whose alma mater, Middlebury College, had its own Honor Code. They researched Honor Codes at medical schools like the University of West Virginia, the University of Colorado, and Olin College, and took suggestions from all areas of campus.

“We wanted a positive document,” says Coletti, “and to make sure that the words conveyed what we wanted them to convey.”

Coletti and Gillespie began writing the Code in September of 2002 and presented a completed version the following May. The document went through seven rounds of revisions before everyone could agree on the language. “It was a learning process for us to stand our ground and say things like, ‘We respect your opinion, but this is what we think it should say,’” says Coletti. “Everyone had their own perceptions of what they wanted the Code to be.” The final version was approved by over three-quarters of the student body.

Even though it’s only the first year of the Honor Code’s existence at Jefferson, its presence is already evident in many areas of campus. It’s featured on the first page of the student catalog. First-year orientation now includes one Honor Code-related activity per day, such as a small group discussion or a film on patient sensitivity. The “Big Sibling” program has been enhanced to resemble Haverford’s Honor Code Orienteers program; now, Jefferson sophomores not only mentor freshmen but also train them in conflict mediation and communication skills. Admissions interviewers ask applicants questions about the Code, seeking to understand how they would handle certain situations under the Code’s guidelines. The Professional Conduct Committee has reorganized itself into less of a disciplinary body and more one of mediation, and has begun publishing abstracts of its proceedings. As an experiment, freshman anatomy quizzes are now taken online and unproctored.

Hollander sees that students are pleased with the Code thus far, chiefly the unproctored tests. “They have a better sense of governing themselves, and trusting themselves to curtail academic dishonesty.”

“The faculty is very energized by this,” says Glaser, “and are willing to take risks with online exams. Students are learning about the challenges involved in confronting peers when they feel something isn’t right.”

“We know it will take a while for everyone to buy into it,” says Coletti. “It won’t be an overnight process.”

Coletti has taken over for Hollander as co-chair of the Honor Code task force, and doesn’t want the Code to lose any of the momentum it gained last year. “Our first goal is to make sure we’re continuing on the same path, that the Code doesn’t become something people once thought was nice and then gets swept under the rug." He points to Haverford, where students were consistently reintroduced to the spirit of the Honor Code through abstracts and plenaries and class discussions.

"We want to do the sme thing at Jefferson," he says, "so everyone will remember the Code's purpose when they sign it."