The Honor Committee met Sunday, with the primary agenda items being the introduction of three new representatives and a report on the end of support officer recruitment. The Committee now has a full composition of 30 representatives for the first time since the term began in April.
The three new representatives are graduate College student Akila Abeyaratna, graduate College student Rebecca Weinstein and graduate Data Science student Ryan Dallas. Abeyaratna and Weinstein were appointed by the Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Council, while Dallas was elected to his post.
In a statement to The Cavalier Daily, Abigail Nickelson, Chair of the University Board of Elections and third-year College student, wrote that the election of Dallas as graduate Data Science representative was administered independently of the UBE.
“UBE's delegated function is to administer all University-wide elections … but some schools and organizations choose to internally run non-University-wide elections,” Nickelson said.
Honor Representative elections are usually held in the spring and are administered by the UBE. However, the School of Data Science uses an 11-month curriculum for masters students, and Dallas was not enrolled in the University in the spring. Therefore, electing a representative who is a graduate Data Science student in the spring was not possible.
After the new representatives introduced themselves, the Committee moved to a report from Thomas Ackleson, Committee chair and fourth-year Engineering student, recapping support officer recruitment. Honor Support Officers are appointed to assist the work of the committee and are divided into three different roles — advisor, counsel and educator.
“My big focus this past week has been getting the training classes underway and finalizing our selections and recruitment process,” Ackleson said.
The role of advisors is to provide parties in an Honor proceeding with information about the case process and emotional support. Counselors investigate alleged Honor offenses and present the views of both the community and the accused during Honor trials, and educators provide the community with information about the ideals and processes of the Honor System through orientation and educational programs.
In total, the Committee added 72 new Support Officers, representing all undergraduate schools at the University. In a written statement to the Cavalier Daily, Ackleson said that this semester’s support officer applicant pool was of record-size.
Ackleson said that most new support officers are first-year students. In terms of the role breakdown, 32 of the new Support Officers are advisors, 30 are counselors and 8 are educators. Additionally, two new support officers deferred their admission and will serve next term instead.
Ackleson said that it was the effort of the entire Committee to interview and select the new class of Support Officers.
“I think in total, [the Committee] put in over 300 man-hours over two weeks,” Ackleson said. “Definitely a substantial effort on behalf of all the executive committee … [on behalf of] all the senior support officers, really [an] all hands on deck situation.”
The Committee also heard executive and working group reports. Cody Scarce, vice chair for investigations and third-year College student, reported that there are 12 Honor cases pending decision and five cases currently being investigated.
Genny Freed, vice chair for sanctions and third-year College student, reported that the Committee has held one informed retraction panel in the two weeks since the Committee met last. Freed added that three more informed retraction panels are scheduled before the Committee meets again next Sunday at 7 p.m.
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