The outgoing Honor Committee met for the final time last night and released statistics about cases during its 2008-09 term, excluding yesterday’s closed trial.
According to the data, the Committee reviewed a total of 64 cases during its term. Of these cases, 27 were brought against white students, 21 were brought against black students, 11 were brought against Asian and Asian-American students, four were brought against Latino students, and the remaining four were brought against students of unknown race.
The statistics “don’t represent the University community,” former Vice Chair for Investigations Blaire Hawkins said, explaining that the percentage of minority students brought up on honor charges is disproportionate to the percentage of minority students enrolled at the University. “I think it’s clear that there’s something to be concerned about here.”
Hawkins added that the Committee needs to determine the cause of this disparity.
The numbers are “especially skewed when it comes to reports,” Hawkins said, noting that she believes reporting rates are a central concern that need to be addressed in the future.
Black students also were formally accused of honor offenses at investigative panel on a more frequent basis than students of any other race or ethnicity. Thirteen of the 35 cases in which a student was formally accused involved a black student.
“Some of the statistics in terms of ethnicities reflect our concerns that we have discussed in the Diversity Advisory Board,” former Committee Chair Jess Huang said.
Hawkins said she believes the problem of reporting is a “two-sided issue” between the community reporting these cases and the Committee’s need to improve its education and outreach efforts.
“The Committee has to start taking responsibility to that, and start paying attention to all sorts of different people,” Hawkins said.
Once brought to trial though, only three black students were found guilty, whereas five white students were found guilty.
The result of students found “guilty versus not guilty does sort of balance” out in the end, Hawkins said. Hawkins said the results shows that juries are mostly “even-handed.”
Though there may be balance in the final phase of the trial process, however, Hawkins added that these statistics do not make up for the bias found earlier in case reporting and formal accusations from the I-panel.
Hawkins also expressed non-diversity-related concerns about the number of students found guilty at trials. A total of 35 students were formally accused of committing an honor offense at investigative panel, but only 11 students were found guilty at trial. There were 29 trials in total.
“I’m not saying that more people need to be found guilty,” Hawkins said, but the Committee “shouldn’t have a one to three ratio at trials.”
Hawkins said the Committee needs to ensure that it is as thorough as it can be in its investigative panels and investigations process to help remedy these concerns.
Compared to last year’s statistics, Huang noted that the number of varsity athletes reported and accused decreased significantly. Huang attributed this improvement to presentations given by the Committee to all athletic teams.
The presentations included a series of case studies presented before the teams that involved the members actively participating in different scenarios involving honor issues, rather than the Honor Committee telling the athletes what honor is and how to report an offense, Huang said. She also added that this was the first year the Committee used such a project, and that this is a program she would encourage the future Committee to participate in during its term.
Both Hawkins and Huang also noted the large increase in the number of cases handled this year compared to the previous term.
“The Committee handled an incredibly larger number of cases than” last year’s Committee, Hawkins said. According to last year’s statistics, a total of 35 cases were reported, and only 26 students were formally accused of an honor offense by the I-panel.
Hawkins said this is not necessarily indicative of any certain qualities of the past Committee, but shows the variations of the honor system from year to year in regards to reporting.
The statistics for the past term will soon be available on the Committee’s Web site, Hawkins said. Students currently can view past year’s statistics on the site.
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