During Sunday evening's Honor Committee meeting, the Committee voted on a bylaw change that codifies plans for summer case processing. The Committee also discussed the potential establishment of the Student Technology Council, reviewed preliminary survey data regarding the possibility of a University-wide artificial intelligence policy and the finalization of term transition documents.
Over the past couple of weeks, the Committee developed plans for how they will process sanctioning cases over the summer for students accused of an honor violation. According to Thomas Ackleson, Committee chair and fourth-year Engineering student, the Committee aims to resolve as many honor cases as reasonably possible without compromising the integrity of the sanctioning process. He also said there tends to be an increase in the number of honor violation reports around the time of finals — which might be reported to students during the summer.
At their last meeting, the Committee agreed on summer case processing procedures and drafted a bylaw amendment to codify these procedures for the Committee.
This summer, the Committee will process the beginning of sanctioning cases in the same manner they do during the regular academic year — by notifying students of an alleged honor violation as soon as reasonably possible and giving students the option of an Informed Retraction if they have the ability to utilize one during their case.
Students who chose to utilize an IR will continue to process their case during the summer as they would during the regular academic year. Students who are unable or choose not to utilize an IR will have their cases deferred to the Fall semester for processing that does not follow the IR track and instead utilizes full investigations and sanctioning panels.
An IR allows an accused student to accept responsibility for an honor violation and avoid permanent sanctions — such as permanent transcript notation or expulsion. Students are entitled to one IR during their time as a student at the University.
According to Ackleson, the vote passed “almost unanimously,” and no Committee members or representatives opposed the vote.
During the meeting, Ackleson also mentioned that he planned a meeting with Mona Sloane, assistant professor of Data Science and Media Studies and founder of Sloane Lab, to discuss the establishment of the Student Technology Council.
Ackleson said the Student Technology Council — a new special status organization that would place students in self-governance positions to advise on and make decisions related to technology and AI — would help place decisions about AI more heavily in students' hands. Special status organizations — such as Student Council and the University Board of Elections — are University entities that delegate duties of the University to be completed by students.
“Mona Sloane … and some of her graduate students [are] doing a lot of research on a potential special status organization called the Student Technology Council, which is supposed to act as a legislative body [where] students elect [other students] to advocate for them about technology on Grounds,” Ackleson said.
Ackleson said that the Student Technology Council would discuss topics like the establishment of AI policy by the University. According to its website, the Student Technology Council will advise “key decision-makers” about the student perspective on technology development. Ackleson also said that the Student Technology Council is interested in establishing a permanent seat on the Council for an Honor representative and learning how the Committee functions as a student self-governance organization.
The Committee also released a survey regarding AI to a random selection of 5,000 enrolled students and received around 600 responses — a 12 percent response rate. Kayla Kim, chair of the data and research subcommittee and third-year Data Science representative, said that the survey received strong responses and shed light on the priorities of students when it comes to AI at the University.
“The main thing that I saw before the survey closed [was] that a lot of students think that we need Student Council members, Honor Committee members and then a lot of faculty [to discuss] implementing a University-wide AI policy,” Kim said.
Kim also said that the survey showed that students are also looking to expand student representation and voice when it comes to implementing a University-wide AI policy.
At the end of open session, Ackleson encouraged the rest of the Committee to continue working on term transition documents — which are supportive documents aimed at easing the transition between the newly-elected representatives and vice-chairs in the next Committee term.
There will not be a Committee meeting Sunday due to a retreat that will be taking place at Graves Mountain Lodge. The retreat will be attended by all the outgoing Executive Committee members and all of the incoming representatives. At the retreat, the newly-elected representatives will also vote on the new Chair and Vice Chairs of the Committee.
The Committee's last meeting of the term will be April 5 at 7:00 p.m. in Newcomb Hall Room 480. The meeting can also be attended via Zoom from the Committee's website. This Committee's term will officially end April 6 at 12:00 p.m.
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