Two members of the Faculty Senate spoke at Sunday's Honor Committee meeting to promote a faculty survey on the honor system.
Kenneth Schwartz, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate, and Academic Affairs Committee member Ann Hamric spoke in favor of a survey that would illuminate faculty views on the issue.
"We are trying to come to grips with ways of discussing faculty opinions on honor," Schwartz said.
The Academic Affairs Committee recommended such a survey to the Faculty Senate in response to recent criticism of the honor system by some faculty members.
Hamric said the Faculty Senate wants to get an objective view of faculty opinions on the honor system.
"Right now, we're getting a lot of opinions and anecdotal evidence," Hamric said.
The Faculty Senate voted unanimously to put the survey in the hands of the Honor Committee.
"Because it's a student-run system, any data-gathering needs to be run by the students in the interest of student self-governance," Hamric said.
The Honor Committee now will have to decide how to address the issue.
"Basically, the Senate just handed it to the students, and it's up to the students what happens now," Hamric said.
Several Honor Committee members offered suggestions for survey content.
Recently-elected Vice-Chair for Investigations Lauren Ross suggested that questions should be added to the survey which polled faculty knowledge about the honor system.
"It seemed that in many areas, the questions were opinion-based," Ross said.
Another suggested question for the survey concerned the preparedness of the faculty to address honor issues.
"A lot of the faculty have not had a lot of exposure to the Honor Committee views and the views of the student body," outgoing Honor Committee Chair Meghan Sullivan said.
Both Schwartz and Hamric urged the Honor Committee to act quickly on the survey.
"The irons are hot -- you can get a lot of response out of the faculty right now," Schwartz said.
Under the Faculty Senate's proposal, the University's Center for Survey Research would conduct the survey.
"These folks are experts at this, and they work throughout the Commonwealth," Schwartz said.
Both the Honor Committee and the Faculty Senate representatives were interested in discussing the cost of the survey, estimated between $17,000 and $24,000.
"I think the specific cost is something we're going to be concerned about as a committee," Honor Committee member Matt Miller said.
Schwartz said the Faculty Senate had already spoken to the University Provost about funding.
"There's very little around this University that is more important than honor," Schwartz said.
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