The nation's first codified honor system was instituted by UVA law professor
Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. in 1842, after a fellow professor was shot to death on
the Lawn. There are three tenets to the system: students simply must not
lie,
cheat, or
steal. For its first 180 years it was a "single sanction system", meaning that committing any of these three offenses would result in immediate expulsion from the university. In the spring of 2022, following decades of criticism and waning support, a proposal to replace the penalty of expulsion with a two-semester suspension passed a student referendum with over 80% of the vote and took effect immediately.