Honor Committee representatives discussed the purpose and goals of the survey they plan to administer to the faculty this winter at their meeting Sunday night, as well as whether teaching assistants would be included with professors in the survey.
"We don't have to have all the answers, but we want to have enough detailed information to react," Committee Chair David Hobbs said.
The Committee currently is in the process of formulating the survey with Center for Survey Research Director Tom Guterbock.
Much of Sunday night's debate focused on whether teaching assistants would be surveyed along with professors.
"Graduate students were extremely concerned that they were not going to be included in the survey," Vice Chair for Trials Stewart Ackerly said. "They had very strong opinions regarding the honor system, many of them negative."
There was some confusion as to whether the original cost estimate included the polling of TAs.
"I don't think they're included in the $23,000 quote," Hobbs said.
Hobbs added he did not know how much cost the polling of TAs would add.
"When I talked to [Guterbock] this summer, it seemed like that would require a different survey," Special Assistant to the Honor Committee Nicole Eramo said.
The Committee also discussed whether to ask the faculty their opinions on the single sanction, considering that the Honor Committee only represents students.
"It's definitely a student-run system, however, it's not debated whether or not [faculty] initiate cases," Education Rep. Sarah Outten said. "They initiate what I consider to be a significant amount."
According to statistics released last spring, faculty members initiated 32 percent of cases in the 2003-2004 Committee term.
"It doesn't matter whether or not faculty like the single sanction, it matters if it prohibits them from initiating cases," Ackerly said.
Other representatives argued that the survey should ask direct questions on the single sanction for greater understanding of faculty motivations.
"It would be very helpful to see the correlation between how they feel about initiations and how they feel about the single sanction," Commerce Rep. Matt Miller said.
The Committee will continue to discuss the faculty survey in future meetings, Hobbs said.
"It's kind of an ongoing process until early November, when we hope to have it nailed down," Hobbs said.
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