As the academic year comes to a close, members of the Honor Committee worked to finalize upcoming initiatives for next year at its meeting Sunday evening.
Committee Chair Charlie Harris said the Committee will continue its overall goal of the past term of engagement so as to make honor relevant to every University student.
"We're recognizing that there are many different types of students at U.Va., and we need to think about what resonates with each one of them," Harris said.
In particular, members of the Committee currently are working to develop and implement educational initiatives for student-athletes, a "unique community with a different set of pressures than most students," Harris said.
Plans include incorporating honor into orientation sessions for student-athletes and providing this community with more resources.
"We need to be more sophisticated in how we communicate with the student body," Harris said.
In addition, the Committee has finalized a student honor module that will be effective this fall for all current University students. Similar to the Information Technology and Communication computer module all incoming students must take, every student at the University will be required to take an online exam about honor. Beginning in 2011, only the incoming class for first-year students will be required to take the honor module.
The module will allow incoming students to be involved with more-informed and higher-level honor dialogue before they even reach the University, Harris said.
Additionally, the Committee is working on developing a similar faculty education module focused on issues faculty may face in regards to honor.
Vice Chair for Education Maggie Thornton is planning a mock exam to stimulate honor conversations between students and their honor representatives. The Committee will provide coffee or food to create an environment encouraging honor conversations between students and their representatives.
Thornton wants the Committee to meet with as many people as possible, to generate ideas from people outside the Committee and support officer pool.
"The honor system belongs to all students at U.Va, not just the students directly involved with it. Everyone at U.Va is a stakeholder of the honor system, and we want to have conversations with our stakeholders," Thornton said.
Apart from these external initiatives, the Committee also is looking to improve its internal processes, enacting a new policy regarding its investigation panels that Harris described as a precautionary measure to insulate the Committee and protect the integrity of the honor system.
Before an investigation, support officers and members will be given a dummy list of names that will include the name of the accused student. If a member recognizes the name, he will not be involved with the investigation.
Moreover, the panels will be name-blind, using a student's initials instead of their full names.
The Committee will use the upcoming summer months as an opportunity to bring these plans to fruition.
"We've got a lot of balls in the air," Harris said.
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