As part of an ongoing "Envisioning Integrity" initiative begun in 2001, the Honor Committee is now bringing the ideals of honor home -- literally -- to first-year students through a new dormitory liaison program.
Trained Honor support officers will work in conjunction with resident staff to facilitate discussions in all first-year dormitories about honor and integrity both within the confines of the University Honor code and beyond.
"The goal is to get people discussing integrity in everyday life," Vice Chair for Education Sarah Outten said. "Honor is not just a system, it's a life skill."
Two support officers will be assigned to every first-year residence hall. Within the first two or three weeks of the semester, the support officers will distribute green books, CDs and contact information for the Committee to their respective groups and return for an EI roundtable later in the semester.
According to Committee Chair Meghan Sullivan, the dorm talk program is an ambitious endeavor for the Committee.
"For us, this will be one of the biggest Honor education initiatives we've ever tried," Sullivan said, adding that the Committee had to tap into its counsel and advisor pools to join the ranks of its educators to act as dorm liaisons.
While most Honor education events are usually one-time affairs, the EI program is unique because it will provide a sustained interaction between support officers and first-year students, Sullivan said.
"We usually don't spend a lot of time repeatedly working with the same group," she said.
Planning for the program took up "a large portion for the summer," Outten said, and support officers underwent specialized training for facilitating small group discussions at an Honor Committee workshop last Friday.
The EI program was created in 2001. Patricia Lampkin, vice president for student affairs, put together a committee of faculty, staff and students to look at the core value of honor at the University. The group met for one year and broke into sub-groups based upon different constituencies.
This year's dorm talk program came out of a sub-group of the EI committee that focused on undergraduate students, according to Nicole Eramo, special assistant to the Honor Committee.
Honor educators used to give dorm presentations to first years, but logistical problems impeded their efforts.
"Recently, it just seemed like this was good timing" to implement the program, Eramo said.
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