Jenna Furch and Professor Quinn Galbraith, HBLL Human Resource Training and Development Manager

The wonderful atmosphere at BYU has attracted and impressed several of its visitors. I believe most people would agree that a large part of this great atmosphere is due to the University’s Honor Code. Because the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) serves at the center of campus by providing a place for students and faculty to actively engage in study and research, it is important that the Honor Code is upheld in the library as well as all of campus.

The Honor Code states specifically: “Each member of the university community has not only an individual obligation to sustain and preserve the Honor Code but a shared responsibility to help others do likewise.”¹ Because we all have this responsibility to not only sustain and preserve the Honor Code ourselves but help others I wanted to make sure the library was a place that allowed this obligation we each have.

In February of 2006 the library officially reviewed their policy on their stand regarding how to uphold the Honor Code in its facilities. The policy says that the library will advertise their promotion of upholding the Honor Code as well as training their employees to give a reminder to its patrons when they are not following the dress and grooming and behavior standards stated in the Honor Code. In order to follow through on this policy and train the employees on when and how to give reminders, my mentor and I, created a training which is given to all library employees. In this training we review the library’s official policy and talk about when and how to give a reminder to patrons. My mentor and I also wrote a script for an 8 minute video which the Multi-Media Department in the library helped us film. This video is a fun way to give variety to teaching and lets employees see their fellow employees talking about their experiences with reminding patrons about the Honor Code. We also had many employees involved in this project by giving us their thoughts on what would be best wording to say to a patron and also acting in our film. After the film was done I showed it to many students and administrators, and after their approval and a few changes we had the final material. The video took about 2 months of writing a script and filming.

Something that caused somewhat of a problem was the fact that the library is a little different than other places because they have so many non-BYU affiliated people coming into their facilities. Some of these people have not signed the Honor Code but are still able to use the library’s materials. They wouldn’t want to offend someone by giving them a reminder to shave for example if they aren’t BYU affiliated. After much thought in this area the library came up with a way that they can tell from the students id if they have signed the Honor Code or not. This was a problem at first but we were able to overcome it!

After the video was complete we held trainings for all student employees and incorporated the training into our new student employee orientations so all students will be educated on this subject. The Mission Statement of Brigham Young University states that “certainly all relationships within the BYU community should reflect devout love of God and a loving, genuine concern for the welfare of our neighbor.”² The Brigham Young University Honor Code Policy also states that “We must always challenge and council our peers and others in the spirit of love.”³ These two statements are extremely important and is what I tried to emphasize most in the trainings is that the patrons who come to the library are our peers and we are just trying to help them out.

Overall I feel that this project has benefited all of those who go through the training because it gives them direction on their responsibility in upholding the Honor Code in the library. Many students are very open minded to the directions they are given and feel it is an important thing to take seriously. I also feel like I learned so much about working with other people of all types and also helping the library with something I care deeply about.

References

• “Church Educational System Honor Code.” BYU Honor Code. Brigham Young University. 19 Sept. 2005 <http://campuslife.byu.edu/honorcode/>.