The newly elected Honor Committee held its first official meeting yesterday, during which several support officers addressed the Committee about reforms they would like to see made to the Honor system.
Support officers Josh Hess, president of Students for the Preservation of Honor, and Sam Leven, communications director of Hoos Against the Single Sanction, made a joint presentation to the Committee.
Leven said their respective organizations agreed on five concerns: the amount of time it takes the Honor Committee to address problems, developing better relationships with students, addressing the problems faced by international students by printing the green Honor pamphlet in other languages and holding occasional meetings outside Newcomb.
"We don't mean to be preachy -- we just want to start the dialogue a little bit," Hess said.
Leven and Hess also distributed a letter voicing their concerns to the Committee.
Honor counsel Ryan Martin suggested utilizing the resident advisor program to address Honor education issues.
Martin, who is also an RA, said he sees "a lack of understanding is breeding a sense of fear, instead of embracing our system. ... We've got to do more than a 10-minute video at orientation."
Martin added that he "encouraged" the Honor to increase faculty participation.
Honor also addressed the meeting procedure that will govern meetings for the current term.
Honor Chair Alison Tramba said the main concern was that conversations within Honor be open without being adversarial.
Honor members also discussed the code of ethics under which it will operate. Honor will vote on the final wording of the code of ethics at next week's meeting.
"Basically the idea behind the code of ethics is to explicitly lay out our objectives as a committee and a system specifically in relation to professionalism," Tramba said. "Honor is a professional organization -- probably the most professional on-Grounds -- as it should be, because the work we do is very serious."
Vice Chair for Trials Jay Trickett expressed concern with the section dealing with conflict of interest.
"I frankly think there are some serious concerns that I have with this language" of the code of ethics, Trickett said.
If an Honor officer has previously been involved with a case, he or she is asked not to be involved with any appeal activities, according to Tramba.
A "significant prior relationship" with anyone involved in the case would also excuse an Honor officer from the case, Tramba added.
"Even if you feel like you could be unbiased, it will avoid any appearance of impropriety," said Nicole Eramo, special assistant to the Honor Committee.
Trickett asked Honor to wait a week before approving the code.
"I know it was hashed out a lot with the old committee," Trickett said. "If we as a body arecgoing to vote on this, I think we should really be given a chance to review it for a week."
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