Amid renewed efforts to strengthen diversity at the University, Honor Committee Chair Meghan Sullivan said the 2004-2005 Committee is one of the most diverse in the system's recent history.
"This year we have representatives from a variety of age groups and backgrounds," Sullivan said. "By far it's one of the most representative bodies we've had in office in quite a few years."
Sullivan said a variety of schools -- both graduate and undergraduate -- currently are represented on the Committee. Executive committee members come from many different schools, including the College, Engineering, Law and Education schools.
"That's a very diverse cross-section of the University," she said.
In addition, Sullivan said the Committee is racially diverse.
"Racially we are more diverse this year -- more so than in any of the recent past Committees," she said.
Increasing diversity has been an important goal, Sullivan said. The Committee has endeavored to recruit minority and international students in order to better represent the student body.
"The honor system has been working very hard to become more representative of the student body as a whole," she said.
She attributed the diverse make-up of the Committee to the high level of student participation in the past election as well as to the Committee's visible outreach efforts.
"I think when students see that ... then they're more likely to feel they can run for the Committee and that they can participate in governing the system," she said. "And that's something that's been a very high priority for this year's Committee and last year's."
Vice Chair for Services Lorre Luther, a second-year Law student, said she agreed that the Committee has succeeded in becoming a more diverse group.
"It really is an incredibly diverse Committee," Luther said. "I think we're a bit older than past Committees. And we're also a very racially diverse group."
In addition to being diverse in terms of age, race and school, the Committee also has members with varied experiences that will enable them to bring unique perspectives to the table.
Luther, for example, served as a teaching assistant at the University of Chicago. Being in an instructor's shoes has given her a unique view of academic dishonesty among students, she said.
"I felt I was in a particularly good position not only to understand what was going on with the students but also from the faculty perspective," Luther said.
Architecture School Rep. Ryan Chatman films practices and games for the football team. He said he plans to utilize his experience with the athletics department to improve education and awareness of the honor system among football players and other athletes.
"I intend to inform athletes about what teachers are looking for and what might cause them to be spotlighted during test time and so forth," Chatman said.
He added that his close relationships with some of the players will enable him to spread the word about honor more effectively.
"When it's a friend talking to you, you tend to heed more information from them than you would a stranger," he said.
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