Although the student body failed three of the four proposed honor referenda last week, it voted overwhelmingly in favor of modifying the role of honor counsel at trial. It is up to the Honor Committee to decide how significant a change it will implement.
"I think [the role of counsel at trial] will change very little," graduate Education Rep. Jim Haley said.
Passage of the referendum causes the Committee constitution to be amended. Now, the Committee can alter its bylaws to reflect this amendment. But it may not be necessary to make significant changes.
"Our constitution and bylaws are compatible right now," Committee Chairman Thomas Hall said. The referendum passing "just gives us more flexibility in how to set up trial situations."
Little may change because the modifications planned hinged on passage of the proposals to eliminate random student juries and always include three Committee members on a panel, Haley said.
But those two referenda failed.
"I [had] envisioned a system in which the onus would be on the panel to ask questions" and discern the truth, Haley said.
But this would require assertive participation and "with a random student jury, it is questionable whether this model would work," he said.
"What was in the Review Commission Report has not changed so I think there are some real issues that need to be addressed," Haley added.
"Without a mixed panel providing probing questions" and a certain amount of consistency, such a model would not work, Vice Chair for Investigations Ginny Rothschild said.
Honor counsel now investigate possible offenses. They represent both the accused student and the initiator in the presentation of the case, much like lawyers in the U. S. legal system.
In the new model, accused students would have taken a far greater role in their own defense. Instead of counsel cross-examining witnesses, they would tell their story the panel would ask questions, and the accused student could then respond, Haley said.
There would no longer be a counsel for the initiator, and there would be counsel assisting the accused but not representing them, Rothschild said.
This would eliminate contentiousness and make honor trials less legalistic, Haley said.
"These referenda issues are not dead, and the future committee should not consider them so," Commerce representative-elect Brad Buchanan said.
"There is substantial support for the referenda that failed," Buchanan said. All three received over 40 percent support.
"A lot will depend on what the new committee thinks," but these issues may be revisited, Hall said.
Some procedural changes can occur without changing the bylaws, Rothschild said.
"We can continue to train counsel not to badger witnesses or make emotional pleas" and to focus on pursuit of the truth, Rothschild said.
"We can also highly [encourage] accused students to take a more active role in their cases," she said.
The Committee also discussed other possible changes to the bylaws that would affect jury deliberation, including strengthening the role of trial chair and giving more time to juries to consider evidence before trial.
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