The Honor Committee discussed possible methods of educating the student body on upcoming referenda Sunday night. The Committee also discussed a proposed change to Honor's bylaws that would change the order of speakers during closing arguments in Honor trials.
Committee members first discussed various ways to approach the consensus clause, which will appear on the ballot because a group of students obtained the necessary number of signatures from the general student body. The consensus clause would require at least one-third of the student body to vote on any changes to the single sanction.
"Our responsibility is to make sure everyone understands it, we're not going to endorse it" tonight, Committee Chair David Hobbs said.
Vice Chair for Education Randall Warden agreed. He said it was the duty of the Committee to make it clear the proposal came from the student body and to present neutral facts about the referendum.
Vice Chair for Investigations Lauren Ross said she does not support the consensus clause because it only addresses the single sanction.
"I think it gives the single sanction too high of a premium," she said. "It seems like we're saying that the Honor system doesn't matter as much or isn't as important."
Some Committee members expressed concern about the number of times a movement has been mounted against the single sanction.
"It will only take one time when a small segment of the student body will be able to eliminate the single sanction and once you get rid of something in Honor, it's not coming back," Vice Chair for Services Trevor McFadden said.
Hobbs also emphasized that passage of the consensus clause does not prevent its removal by the normal method of a majority of 60 percent of voters with 10 percent of students voting.
Medical School Rep. Alex Hawkins also brought the Committee up to date on plans for education concerning the triviality proposal, which would replace the term "serious" with "non-trivial" in the Honor constitution.
According to Hawkins, the Committee is planning to distribute buttons and pamphlets about the referendum. He also asked members of the Committee to e-mail their constituents.
Following discussion of education methods, Trevor McFadden introduced a proposed change to the Committee's bylaws which would allow the counsel for the community to reserve some of his or her five minutes to rebut any closing arguments made by the counsel for the accused.
"The other vice chairs and I came up with this to address a lot of concerns that were brought about by the last proposal to prevent against inappropriate argument by the counsel of the accused at the last minute," McFadden said.
He also said that a similar proposal failed last semester.
Ross said she voted against the proposal last time because she thought it was too stressful for the accused student, but the new referendum is structured to give the student the benefit of the doubt prior to the verdict's reading.
The Committee will vote on the proposed change next week.
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