This semester marks an important period of progress for the Honor Committee, which stumbled somewhat last semester amidst low reporting rates, attacks from secret societies and no pending trials. Having already concluded one trial so far this semester and with several investigations still pending, the Committee appears to have recovered from its period of atrophy and resumed its duties. New plans to expand outreach to update its infrastructure and repair weaknesses in its existing outreach programs promise to occupy the Committee's time this semester with substantive improvements that will serve the student body.
Honor Committee Chair Ben Cooper emphasizes this semester's focus on educational outreach, the shortcomings of which were highlighted in the Faculty Survey. Cooper added, "We weren't getting the message through that we wanted to. Several groups didn't understand all they needed to participate effectively in the system." International students frequently encounter problems with the honor system, having to balance arranging student visas and acclimating to a completely new setting while trying to learn the honor code. To some international students, the honor system is a foreign idea. So the Committee tries to dedicate additional resources to fund outreach -- usually with unimpressive results. A new program specifically targeting smaller groups of international students seeks to remedy the education gap.
The new program should serve as model the Committee could apply to other groups that experience similar "spotlighting," which is the term the Committee uses to describe disproportionately high reporting rates against certain groups. Athletes and minority students, for example, are several times more likely to have honor cases brought against them than other students. Improved outreach programs could ensure, at the very least, that everyone receives the same introduction to the honor system.
That said, the Committee should be careful not to let "outreach" become an excuse to spend exorbitant amounts of money for dubious reasons. For instance, Cooper's recent all-expenses-paid cruise through Southern California and Mexico to educate Semester at Sea students about the honor code seems excessive. Certainly a phone call or e-mail would have sufficed.
Although considering the out-dated technology the Committee uses to store documents and record testimony, maybe an e-mail is too much to ask. The Committee still records its trials on cassette tapes, which for an organization with an endowment worth more than $2 million seems due for improvement. Cooper promises to purchase digital recording and video conference equipment that would make remote testimony more feasible. The Committee also plans to update their system for storing case documentation, which would simplify the preparation of cases before trial. Updating the Committee's technological resources is about more than aesthetics; the Committee needs the best equipment to do its job well. Plus, as President Nixon displayed, cassette tapes are just too easy to lose.
Upgrading the Committee's technology will actually improve its outreach efforts. A redesigned, user-friendly Web site would help students educate themselves about the Committee on their own time. Providing the public with the honor code translated into several languages could supplement the Committee's new effort to reach international students. All of these improvements help to make the Honor Committee more accessible to students. And the more accessible the Committee becomes, the more students will be able to engage it intelligently.
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