The Honor Committee released its state-funded and endowment-funded budgets for 2013 to The Cavalier Daily on Thursday. The Committee’s total budget is $179,031, with $117,446 drawing from the Committee’s endowment and the other $61,585 from state funding.
“Honor systems and honor codes at modern universities face a tremendous number of pressures, and money should never be one of those,” Committee Chair Evan Behrle said.
Behrle, a fourth-year College student, met with the president of the Alumni Association, the chair of the Alumni Association Board of Managers and the vice president and chief financial officer of the Alumni Association to propose his budget request, which was subsequently approved.
Behrle said the Committee usually spends less than its allocated budget and draws less from its endowment than it could annually, given the interest the endowment earns.
The Committee’s endowment fund was established in 2002 to stabilize the Committee’s funding and has grown substantially since. The endowment currently stands at about $2.7 million.
The endowment budget has five categories, including personnel services, education, outreach and internal spending. Personnel services, including a $54,000 per-year salary for a legal advisor salary, comprise nearly half the budget. The outreach category comprises almost a third of the budget.
“The endowment is for the holistic maintenance of the honor system [and] more for outreach,” Behrle said.
Behrle said then-Honor Committee Chair Stephen Nash used funds from the endowment to run a campaign promoting all-Committee member juries and informed retraction last year prior to a student referendum. Informed retraction allows students accused of an honor offense to admit guilt and leave the University for two semesters rather than proceeding with a trial and risk expulsion.
Behrle said internal improvements to the Committee’s operations, such as a $10,000 internal digital case-processing system and $10,000 for fixing door locks broken in Newcomb Hall, where the Honor Committee’s offices are located, contributed much more to the budget.
“In the last one to two years we undertook the construction of an online case processing system,” Behrle said. “Those type of things which are a lot less obvious to people are much more expensive.”
The Committee also receives funding from the state through the University. The proposed state fund budget is broken into general operations, education, outreach, training, trial cost and banquet expenses. The training budget, which includes many orientation staff supplies, comprises roughly a quarter of the state allotment.
Behrle said the Committee allocates the state budget by general category, rather than for specific line items.
“It’s based on more historic amounts,” Behrle said.
The state budget also includes $4,335 for an annual banquet, which Behrle said was held to thank Committee members and support officers. Behrle said any spending beyond the allocated amount from the state budget would come from the endowment.
Honor Committee budget from the endowment
Honor Committee budget from state funds
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