University students elected 23 Honor Committee representatives yesterday for the upcoming term. The new members will take office after Spring Break at a retreat where the chair and executive committee will be elected internally.
Elected representatives for the College include third-year students Brandon Kist, Remy Wheat, Ellie Perkins, Alex Eschenroeder and Liz Rosenberg.
Current College representative Sarah Munford said the five incoming representatives will bring forth new ideas.
"There is a good balance of different experiences between the five of them that they've had in Honor, so they bring a lot of good perspectives and backgrounds," Munford said.
Eschenroeder's election platform was based on sustaining community engagement. He intends to reach out to other community members with the goal of making honor not only more accessible but also more understandable by continuing the efforts of outgoing Vice Chair for Community Relations Danielle McGregor.
Eschenroeder said the passage of referenda about the language used to describe an honor offense is a good starting point for the Committee.
"That is what we're trying to do - make the system as fair as possible," he said.
The biggest challenge the Committee faces is upholding and extending connections with student organizations, the athletic department and academic departments, Eschenroeder said.
"I think that is something Honor is capable of but takes a sustained level of effort," he said.
Incoming College representative Ellie Perkins expressed plans of her own to institute an informed retraction policy, which would allow students to avoid expulsion by confessing guilt during an honor investigation.
"Most students accused have no incentive or ability to fess up to their act in their trial or they are found guilty," Perkins said. "With the informed retraction, you'll be able to admit your guilt ... and then receive some form of lesser punishment."
Fourth-year Batten representative Michael Karlik brings an outsider's perspective to the committee, having served as an educator for the Committee during his first year, he said.
Karlik's goals include reforming the system to a fairer, more transparent version of what exists today.
"By this time next year, I want the student body to have a fair sanction," Karlik said. "It is like every other justice system in the world."
After researching the history of the University's honor system, Karlik noted that at the time of its inception, the only crime for which a student could be expelled was dueling.
"The crime has changed a little bit, but the punishment has stayed the same," he said. "I think we need to think progressively."
Although Karlik's proposal for a different sanction to replace the single sanction opposes many of the incoming members' views, he and Eschenroeder hope to change the student perception of the Committee by increasing understanding and transparency.
"I don't think the students prioritize the honor system in their daily lives here," Karlik said. "I think they would be interested if some kind of big reform came around. I think that if that were to be changed, it would be part of changing this long-standing institution for the better"
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