The Honor Committee met virtually July 20 for the second of its summer meetings and discussed potential bylaw changes to its sanctioning process, specifically regarding the roles of the Counsel for the Community and the Honor Offense Reporter.
According to Genny Freed, vice chair for sanctions and third-year College student, current bylaws say the Counsel for the Community is charged with representing the community of trust during sanctioning panels. Freed said that it is the CC’s responsibility to advocate for the community as best they can.
CCs are part of the Support Officer pool — unelected, appointed students who help the Committee fulfill its duties.
Freed said that even though the reporter of the offense may provide a statement or answer questions, the CC is ultimately arguing on the behalf of the community of trust, not the reporter. Freed added that the current bylaws have “separated” the reporters and the CCs.
Freed argued, however, that unelected Support Officers or appointed students working on cases should not be representing the entire University community. Freed said that there is no need for an independent CC representing the community of trust when representatives already on the case are “perfectly capable” of doing so.
Freed added that different CCs may have different approaches to satisfy their role as representatives of the community of trust, even with the same training. This could mean that case outcomes depend more heavily on the counsel than the situation itself. Freed said that the inherent variation in approach further complicates the CCs’ representation of the community of trust during sanctioning panels.
“There are so many varying styles of counsel within Honor, that having an independent CCs can aggravate the effects of that,” Freed said. “I think sometimes, no matter how much training we give counsel, independent CCs can have different styles of arguments and personal philosophies that get in the way.”
Seamus Oliver, Committee member and fourth-year College student, echoed this sentiment in a presentation further outlining the points Freed made. In his presentation, Oliver described the different paths the Committee could take to address the Committee’s concerns with the role of independent CCs in the current bylaws.
One option Oliver identified was leaving the bylaws how they are, which would mean having the CC continue to remain separate from the reporter during the sanctioning process. He also noted another option of removing independent CC’s from the Honor process altogether.
Any changes to the role of the CC could significantly affect how sanctioning is pursued by the reporter and the University community against those who committed Honor offenses.
After Oliver’s presentation, Committee members chose to continue discussing the topic at future meetings.
Alex Church, Committee member and fourth-year Engineering student, also stepped down from their position as vice chair for investigations and will no longer serve on the executive committee, but will continue to serve as a Committee member.
In a closed special election immediately following the regular Committee meeting, Cody Scarce, Committee member and third-year College student, was chosen as the next vice chair for investigations. He will leave his role as head of the community relations and diversity advisory committee to assume this new position.
Church chose not to publicly explain their decision, but Thomas Ackleson, Committee chair and fourth-year Engineering student, thanked them for their time and service to the Committee in an email statement to The Cavalier Daily following the special election.
“I’m grateful to Alex for their dedication to Honor for the past three years and now during our VCI transition period,” Ackleson said. “I’m excited to see their work continue as an [Engineering] representative, and I’m proud to call Alex my friend.”
Also in the statement, Ackleson expressed his confidence in Scarce’s abilities to manage the initial phases of the Committee’s case process as the next vice chair for investigations. He also said Scarce was a model Support Officer and that he’s been very dedicated to his role as a Committee member.
The Committee will reconvene virtually Aug. 17 for its final summer meeting before the start of the Fall 2025.
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