The Honor Committee tossed around ideas during their meeting Sunday night for initiatives to educate students about Honor in the coming year. The Committee broke into small groups divided by school to discuss these initiatives and then shared them with the larger group.
“The goal was to have each school come up with an idea that is specific to their school, for education, because each school’s definition of Honor will change depending on year,” said Tamia Walker-Atwater, a third-year Nursing student and Honor Committee vice chair for education. “Our goal this year is to expand the definition of Honor from the community of trust to the community of caring to having each community define what Honor means to them.”
Devin Rossin, a third-year College student and Honor Committee Chair, said Honor is but one facet of the community of trust.
“There’s big “H” Honor, [in] which we adjudicate cases of lying, cheating and stealing, but Honor stands for institutionally a lot more than just that,” Rossin said. “In my opinion, it’s the philosophical backbone of the University … So [the goal is] making that language accessible for every student so they know Honor expands beyond just the definitions of lying, cheating and stealing.”
Brandt Welch, a third-year Engineering student and Honor Committee vice chair for community relations, said he believed the small groups went well.
“Everybody came back with some good ideas, so I was really happy about how that went,” Welch said. “Everyone had already been thinking about it throughout the week, so I think that helped, just re-discussing.”
Jeffrey Warren, a third-year College student and Honor Committee vice chair for hearings, said one support officer suggested Honor host a bilingual town hall for international students.
“I don’t think that something like that has been put on in the past,” Rossin said. “I think it allows support officers and committee members to interact with an underrepresented group of students at the University in an unique and engaging way that we haven’t really done in the past.”
Several of the proposed events would be co-sponsored by other organizations. Warren said he had heard a suggestion to co-sponsor a debate about Honor with one of the debating organizations.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Welch said. “Not just having Honor to talk about issues within Honor, but also maybe community members are really passionate and want to argue why they feel a certain way [and] have Honor facilitate.”
Welch said he believes co-sponsoring with other organizations is an important step in helping them fight against hate speech, citing the an incident of controversial flyers which were found on Grounds Sunday morning.
Welch was referring to flyers that were posted on windows of the Multicultural Student Center, LBGTQ Center and Media Activities Center in Newcomb Hall which featured old tweets from Charlottesville Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy and images of Robert E. Lee as a statue holding a Confederate flag.
“While lying, cheating and stealing are the offenses we can adjudicate, but we need to be an advocate for these other organizations,” Welch said. “Not just support them, but also work with them in their fight for equality, justice and against acts of hate speech that we experienced today.”
In the coming week, the Honor Committee will be co-sponsoring Africa Day with the Organization of African Students on April 22.
“That’s an organization we’ve never had a contact with, and the fact that they feel comfortable enough to reach out to us for co-sponsorship is great,” Welch said. “I actually just got the flyer with Honor’s logo on it and everything. I’m excited.”
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