When students and faculty think of honor, they too quickly associate it with the trials and sanctions of the University Honor Committee, according to the University members who created Envision Integrity, an initiative they are seeking to endow this year.
"We're afraid University students have narrowed their definition of honor to what they can get away with, or what they can get caught for," said Nicole Eramo, special assistant to the Honor Committee and a member of EI.
EI looks to incorporate University faculty and staff, along with students, into an extended dialogue about ethics, integrity and what it calls "little-h honor."
"We want to make sure conversation occurs on how we live our lives in an honorable way every day," said Pat Lampkin, vice president for student affairs, who initiated the program. "It's an entire community issue and we wanted to broaden that conversation."
The group has implemented low-cost programs, including Web sites, presentations and an ethics seminar, since its inception in 2001.
EI members said, however, they have hit a wall, needing substantially more money than the two current sources of funding, the Honor Committee and the Parents Program, can contribute.
"We've had some big dreams that we've had to pare down," Eramo said. "We've managed to get some good programs out of that, but we just got to a point where we realized there are things we wanted to do that we couldn't without funding."
EI began searching for an endowment during the summer. The group sent information to foundations but did not receive any offers.
"We were a bit ambitious in our goals then," Eramo said.
They asked the foundations for a full, permanent endowment -- at a cost of around $3 million -- instead of a two or three year commitment that would cost approximately $150,000 per year.
Now EI is turning to individuals -- alumni in particular -- to contribute to an endowment.
If adequate funding comes this year, EI members said they plan to train educators, hold graduate student dinner forums and establish a film series accompanied by discussion of ethics in the selected movies. Possible screenings include "Traffic," "Minority Report" and "It's a Wonderful Life."
Within the next two years, EI members said they hope to establish a faculty fellow program, hold orientation for staff and faculty members and hire a full-time coordinator for the initiative.
Members stressed the critical need for an employee with resources entirely devoted to EI, pointing out that all current members are faculty, students or staff members associated with the Honor Committee or the Institute for Practical Ethics.
"The job of the person will expand beyond these three groups," said Dave Wolcott, an EI intern and an Honor Committee representative. "It's tough at U.Va. because we're so decentralized."
EI members picture an endowed Envision Integrity effectively filling the gaps between the many ethics initiatives at the University, by drawing in faculty and staff members and expanding the definition of honor.
"Envision Integrity tries to build on all the stuff we've been doing and tries to see what's missing," said EI Co-Chair Ed Freeman, a Darden professor. "The point of this is to try to put ethics and integrity as central to University life."
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