The Honor Committee changed its bylaws yesterday to allow part-time students to be elected to the Honor Committee.**
The move was made so two new Committee members could be elected to represent the School of Continuing Education.
The Committee appointed an ad hoc committee in order to fill the two Continuing Education School positions -- by either election or appointment -- as early as this fall.
Last spring, the Board of Visitors stipulated that part-time students in the School of Continuing Education are eligible to receive degrees and will be represented on the Honor Committee.
Although originally intended to apply only to continuing education students, the proposal was amended to allow part-time graduate students to serve on the Committee as well.
Vice Chairman for Services Cordell Faulk supported the addition of Continuing Education and other part time student representatives to the Committee.
"Why should we deny students who live under the system the right to represent themselves?" Faulk said. "If Thomas Jefferson isn't spinning in his grave right now, he is at least at an angle. We are not letting people represent themselves."
Alistair Findeis, Graduate Arts and Sciences representative, said the proposal would allow part-time graduate students who are working on their dissertations to serve on the Committee.
"If we are loosening the strictures for the School of Continuing Education, I would like to loosen it for" the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Findeis said.
He said many students in graduate schools are writing dissertations and are therefore not enrolled for enough credits to be considered a full-time student.
This semester Findeis, who was a full-time student last year, will be enrolled in the Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences as a part-time student.
But Education School Rep. Jim Haley said the change concerned him because part-time students might not "really be in touch with their schools."
The change allows a student who is enrolled for any number of credits to serve on the Committee.
"The Honor Committee representative is first a student and then a representative," Haley said.
He speculated there could be graduate students who take an abnormally long time to finish their degrees, but wish to stay on the Committee during all this time.
Darden Rep. Dandridge Woodworth said he thinks that elections will keep students with unusual enrollment status off the Committee.
"I think the concern about the eight-year graduate student is unfounded," Woodworth said. "I think the elections process will weed that out."
Vice Chairman for Education Peter Leary agreed students with unusual enrollment status would not be elected to the Honor Committee.
"I don't see a sudden rash of high school students taking over the honor system," Leary said.
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