The fight to put sanction reform referenda on the spring ballot is heating up.
Both Hoos Against Single Sanction and Students for the Preservation of Honor announced significant policy changes this week.
Students for the Preservation of Honor is supporting a new ballot referendum to amend the honor constitution with a consensus clause.
The consensus clause, conceived independently by Students for the Preservation of Honor, is an amendment to the honor constitution that would require a majority of the student body to support any changes to the sanction system.
The current system requires a three-fifths majority of cast votes to pass sanction reform. However, reform measures could pass with the support of only ten percent of the student body.
According to Jim Prosser, an honor counsel who helped devise the consensus clause, the clause is unrelated to the current sanction debate.
"Our goal is to give student self-governance a more majoritarian nature," Prosser said.
Hoos Against Single Sanction is also pursuing a referendum for the spring ballot.
After the failure of the forgiveness clause Referendum vote in the Honor Committee last Sunday, Hoos Against Single Sanction began petitioning to place the forgiveness clause on the ballot.
According to Communications Director Sam Leven, however, Hoos Against Single Sanction has since decided to pursue a more general referendum rather than an attempt at a constitutional amendment.
"It would be a nonbinding question that would read, 'Should the Honor Committee seek alternatives to the single sanction?'" Leven said.
Leven noted that the change came after many members questioned the specificity of the forgiveness clause referendum.
"We've decided that now would be a good time to have a more general debate about the single sanction," Leven said.
Should the consensus clause pass student vote, however, it would make future sanction reform far more difficult to enact.
Both referenda require petitions to be placed on the ballot, but the general question on sanction reform needs only 900 signatures, while as a constitutional amendment, the consensus clause needs 10 percent of the student body, or roughly 2,000 signatures.
Both camps feel confident that they will obtain enough signatures to place their referenda on the ballot.
Prosser said he absolutely believed they would get enough signatures to put the consensus clause on the ballot.
Hoos Against Single sanction will need to organize a new petition drive for the general sanction question, Leven said.
They will need 1,100 fewer signatures for the general sanction question than the forgiveness clause would have required.
"I think we can get the signatures easily," Leven said.
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