Bogged down by the sheer complexity of its task, a commission examining the honor system will not meet its Sep. 17 deadline to suggest changes to the honor system and will have to ask the Honor Committee for an extension.
The need for the extension, Committee Chairman Thomas Hall said, was caused by the difficulty of tackling the issues, not any lack of effort by the Honor System Review Commission.
"We're not going to sacrifice the quality of the Commission's recommendations in order to rush it," Hall said.
The Commission, a 10-member panel composed of three current Committee members, three past Committee members, University alumni, faculty and administrators, was created last year in the wake of a number of lawsuits filed against the time-honored system. The Commission also aims to simplify and reform the system by making it more efficient and less complex.
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"A lot of issues have come up which have required us to extend our timing," Hall said, adding that when the Commission was created, last year's Committee members had no way to know the enormity of the Commission's task.
The 1999-2000 Committee, led by Hunter Ferguson, voted on the Sep. 17 timetable to allow enough time for the Committee to determine what, if any, changes it would make to the honor system if the Commission had suggestions. The deadline also gave the Committee enough time for University-wide education if it decided a referendum on the proposed changes was necessary. The Committee is not required to act on the Commission's reccomendations.
A constitutional change to the honor system would require a referendum vote by the student body, which Committee members say most likely would take place during the Student Council spring elections in February.
That change would require a two-thirds majority vote where at least 10 percent of the entire student body participates - a figure that could be difficult to obtain with a special election.
Hall said he would want at least a month and a half of education before any referendum vote took place. He said this education would have to take place during the regular school year and not during exam time or over a break.
The Commission most likely will seek Committee approval for a delay at Sunday's Committee meeting, but Hall would not specify the length of the extension the Commission will seek.
If the Committee does not grant the extension, the Commission will cease to exist as an adjunct body of the Committee as of Sep. 17.
Hall said he is "cautiously optimistic" the Committee will approve an extension.
Amy Campbell, Committee and Commission member, said she does not believe the Commission will be ready by the Sep. 17 deadline.
"I can't imagine the Commission being ready to present its findings until early October," Campbell said.
The Commission is not in a rush to get its findings to the Committee, she said. She added that the Commission is more concerned with doing a thorough job than meeting the deadline.
Committee Education Rep. Jim Haley said the Committee cannot grant the Commission too long of a delay.
"We owe it to our constituents to put something to them" by the time of the spring ballot, Haley said. "It would be unfair to students to put this off another year"
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