Almost half a year after students voted en masse to overhaul the University’s honor system, the Honor Committee is still discussing teething problems with the implementation of informed retraction.
At the Honor Committee’s weekly meeting Sunday, second-year College student Michael White, a support officer, suggested an amendment to the informed retraction process that would help accused students determine if an offense was “significant.”
Significance, along with “act” and “knowledge,” are the three components of an alleged offense that are considered in a Committee case. Informed retraction, which was passed by a student body student body last semester, allows students to admit to an honor offense and re-enter the community of trust after a two-semester absence.
In a proposed scenario White said students with a higher standard for what qualifies as “significant” than the University community could unnecessarily remove themselves from the community for two semesters or be instantly scared into submitting the form.
Committee members acknowledged that the situation would be very rare. But as Medical student Austen Sim, a Committee representative, said, “there is a little bit of awkwardness” for the “few cases where it is on the fringe or the bubble.”
White asked the Committee to consider creating an amendment “so that the student does not need to guess,” although he left the exact process to be decided by the Committee.
Some Committee members expressed initial approval of the idea, while others worried the amendment could have unintended consequences.
“I definitely understand the impulse,” said Madison Busch, a Batten student and Committee member. “I worry about devaluing the conscientious retraction.”
Conscientious retraction allows students to confess to committing an honor offense before their case had been referred to the Committee. Students face no consequences from the Committee for submitting a conscientious retraction.
Honor Committee Chair Evan Behrle, a fourth-year College student, said it was worthwhile to build in some protection for students even if it would only be helpful in a “fringe case.”
“There is a very small burden of proof when you are advocating for a safeguard to the system,” Behrle said.
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