The Honor Committee’s new class of support officers exhibits almost unprecedented diversity, committee members say.
The incoming group has equal gender representation, and members span racial and ethnic groups as well as schools. Still, it falls short of including representatives from key communities such as student athletics.
Asian students, international students, and student-athletes can in particular see a disproportionate number of cases reported against them, according to Honor Committee resources.
Of the 38 new support officers, 19 identify as male and 19 as female, Lyons said. The students come from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, and identify as Asian, Middle Eastern, African American and Latino.
Eight support officers are enrolled in the Engineering School, and there is one student each from the Law School and the Architecture School.
Honor Chair Faith Lyons, a fourth-year Commerce student, noted the Committee needs to be more present in graduate schools and with student athletes.
“We didn’t have a single student athlete try out this year, and we’ve had student athletes in the pool in the past,” Lyons said.
Increasing diversity has been a goal of the committee in recent years, Lyons said.
“We have done recruitment in different communities for a while, both in racial and ethnic communities, but also in schools,” Lyons said.
Lyons credited Outreach Vice Chair VJ Jenkins, a third-year College student, for his work in increasing Honor’s visibility at a number of fall recruitment events and activities.
In the future, the Committee will also meet with its Community Relations Diversity Advisory Committee, which is made up of leaders throughout various University communities.
It will also look creatively at diversity. Representatives are preparing a dorm representative program for all on-Grounds housing locations.
Through the program, students can be a resource for their peers without having to go through the more extensive training to be a support officer, Lyons said.
“It’s a way to push back against the idea the Honor is exclusive, and offering more opportunities for people to be involved,” Lyons said.
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