The latest Honor Committee referendum to get rid of the seriousness clause in honor cases involving academic cheating will not appear on next week's Student Council ballot, despite Committee members' vote in favor of the referendum Sunday.
According to Article VII of the Honor Constitution - the article that governs amendments - any proposed change to the constitution must wait two to six weeks after being voted on by the Committee to be sent to referendum and voted on by the student body.
Committee members said they had hoped to have the referendum to the students in time to be on the Council election ballot. The Committee debated the proposed amendment for three weeks before passing it Sunday. By then it was ineligible to appear on the ballot.
"We are hoping to work with the Student Council to put the referendum on any run-off ballot that may happen as a result of next week's elections," Vice Chairwoman for Trials Terra Weirich said.
According to some Committee members, if the Committee cannot get the referendum on a run-off ballot, the only other choice would be to hold a special election that would consider only the seriousness referendum, which may not happen until the last week of March because of scheduling difficulties and Spring Break.
Weirich said the reason the constitution requires a two to six- week waiting period before a referendum is voted on is to allow time for Committee members to educate students on the issue fully.
Committee Chairman Hunter Ferguson said the Committee is working on ways to inform students about the implications of this proposed constitutional change. He said the Committee is in the process of printing a pamphlet that discusses both sides of this issue and explains how the constitutional change would affect academic life at the University.
Committee members also said they are hoping to publish articles about the proposal on the Internet and possibly send out a mass e-mail to all students.
In order for the amendment to pass, it needs a three-fifths majority in an election where at least 10 percent of the student body votes in favor of the amendment.
If the student body passes the proposal, two contingent bylaws, passed by the Committee on Sunday, would then take effect.
The bylaws would remove seriousness as a consideration in cases of academic cheating in jury deliberations as well as investigation panel proceedings, the two levels where seriousness now is used when making determining guilt.
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