The Diversity Action Board hosted an annual forum Wednesday night to discuss challenges related to diversity faced by the Honor Committee.
The panel discussion, titled "Is Honor for Everyone?," featured Assistant Dean of Students Nicole Eramo, fourth-year College student and men's varsity basketball player Jerome Meyinsse and Graduate Arts & Sciences student Tim Lovelace.
Eramo reflected on improvements the committee has made through the years, such as ensuring proper representation in random jury selections, providing diversity sensitivity training and improving minority recruitment and outreach.
She added, however, that she was unsure as to when diversity problems ultimately could be resolved.
"There's a lot of particular work we need to do on this issue. A lot has changed and a lot more will change in the future," she said.
Meyinsse, who serves as president of Virginia's Student-Athlete Advisor Committee, discussed the difficulties student-athletes face with the honor system as it stands now. He said the strained relationship between athletes and faculty members has caused issues in the past. Education, he said, is not necessarily an athlete's main priority, and this often leads to carelessness when adhering to the honor code. In addition, athletes who form a close-knit bond with other members of their athletic teams, he said, will be reluctant to turn in teammates for honor offenses.
"When you're on a team, it's never in your best interest to say that your teammates have been cheating," Meyinsse said. "We've had discussions like this in the [Student-Athlete Advisor] Committee over and over again. Teammates aren't going to bring in their teammates in honor offenses."
Lovelace, meanwhile, encouraged the room to begin a critical analysis of what the honor system is and what it can be.
"Why have we been having this conversation for so long? The Honor Committee has had increased representation at certain points, but it hasn't ended the overrepresentation of honor cases against student athletes and people of color," Lovelace said. He noted that students from all sides of the University have served on the Honor Committee, but the issue of diversity has not changed.
"Participation has not been enough," he said.
One possibility is that the Honor Committee could revamp its efforts to reach out to student-athletes and minorities, said Neal Fox, the outgoing chair of the Minority Rights Coalition.
"Creative ideas that are more community-specific might be an important step toward making people more respective towards the Committee's ideals," Fox said. "People don't want to know what Honor is doing because they think Honor is affecting them negatively."
Amy Sikes, outgoing co-chair of the Diversity Action Board, said she believed the forum demonstrated that the Honor Committee still has to do more to deal with issues related to diversity.
"Conversations like this need to continue to be held. When students realize how much we do want change to occur, they will be more willing to work with us," Sikes said.
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