The Honor Committee made plans for establishing five ad hoc committees focused on building Committee and community dialogue at its meeting Sunday night.
The ad hoc committees, each composed of a core group of Committee members, aim to devise strategies for implementing productive policies and revising facets of the system.
"This is a way to coherently address some of the issues we see in the honor system in timely fashion," Committee Chairman Christopher Smith said. "The entire Committee meets only once a week and at that rate our term would be over before we could accomplish anything."
Smith added that "this will give Committee members, support officers and interested community members a way to discuss issues and then bring them before the Committee."
Five general issues, which will undergo refinement in the next week, were set as ad hoc committee topics.
One ad hoc committee will explore the possibility of adding an essay, which would discuss honor, ethics and integrity, to the application for admission to the University.
"This is an idea to help strengthen the system in general with an effort to make the honor system a conscious part of the University in the minds of students," said Brad Robinson, Committee vice-chairman for trials. "If students are hit with the issue of honor before they even come here, it might help to maintain the community of trust."
Another ad hoc committee will consider starting an essay contest on honor, with the hope of publishing a winning essay to enhance understanding and support.
Recognizing vendors and businesses in the community that support the honor system by allowing students privileges based on honor is the topic of another ad hoc committee. Committee members cited personal experiences with merchants who allowed students to pay later or mail in payment.
"That kind of attitude deserves recognition," Robinson said. "It's a great testament to the community as a whole."
The fourth ad hoc committee will look for ways to make the honor system less adversarial. Though past changes have established a general anti-adversarial tone, the Committee wants to brainstorm more specific changes to further the process.
The single sanction, and the issues that surround it, will be the focus of the last ad hoc committee.
Smith said he hopes that support officers and Committee members will participate actively along with members of the community.
"We hope that any community member interested will contact the Honor Committee and express their views," Smith said.
Committee members expressed a desire to take an active role in changing the honor system.
"Our committee is taking an active role and looking at a broad range of issues," Smith said. "It's not just changing the system for the sake of changing it; hopefully we'll be able to say that the honor system is more relevant in the life of the everyday student than it was when we started."
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