The Honor Committee continued discussion on fourth-year Architecture representative Brian Winterhalter's "informed retraction" proposal in its meeting last night. After some debate, the Committee agreed to postpone discussion on the issue until its Nov. 11 retreat.
Winterhalter's proposal, an attempt to change the honor system's long-standing single sanction system, offers students who know the Committee is investigating them for a potential honor violation an opportunity to confess any time before the investigative panel stage. The student would then have to leave the University for a period of reflection and rehabilitation of at least two semesters and later take a special ethics course.
Since last its Oct. 1 meeting, where the Committee had a short but heated debate, Winterhalter had made a few minor changes to his proposal.
If the proposal goes to a referendum vote, it definitely will include a specified time limit for rehabilitation, Winterhalter said.
Also, the informed retraction option would not be open to people who already have graduated, he said.
Committee members voiced both positive and negative reactions to the proposal and raised a number of questions about details.
"I'm against this idea," Darden representative Adam Carter said. He said particularly was skeptical of the year-off punishment and suggested students should not be allowed to leave their home cities.
"I don't want people flittin' around Europe, dickin' around," Carter said to the Committee. "Maybe it should be five semesters away from U.Va., [or] prison," he added under his breath.
"A lot of people on the Committee have some serious qualms with the single sanction," Winterhalter said, in defense of his proposal.
"We've seen the numbers - the [student] survey says that the system is not working," fourth-year Architecture representative Meg Van Dam said. "There's rampant cheating around here and people are not participating in the system. The system is failing."
"If we can get students to participate, it is at least a step in the right direction," she said.
"I think the system is in serious disrepair. The problem is there is a lack of support for the system on the part of both the students and faculty," said Winterhalter. His proposal is just the first step in solving that problem, he said.
"I am frustrated that there are people both on the Committee and within the community who seem to believe there's not a problem," said Winterhalter. He added that the most important thing is that people acknowledge the problem.
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