Honor looks to raise awareness
By Lauren Todd Pappa | February 20, 2004Even though students are reminded about their commitment to academic integrity each time they sign the honor pledge, the Honor Committee devoted this past week to honor awareness to bring the ideal to the forefront of students' minds. Honor Committee Chair Carey Mignerey said the purpose of Honor Awareness Week is to spread the word about honor. "The basic goal is to get people thinking about the concept of honor and to make the Committee as visible as possible," Mignerey said. Vice Chair for Education Sarah Snider said an additional goal was to clear up a common misconception about the honor system. "Our goal is to promote honor awareness not necessarily on a system basis, but so people begin to see that honor isn't just about kicking people out of school," she said. While Honor Awareness Week is put on annually, Mignerey said the committee stepped up its efforts this year. "I think we're much more organized and systematic in how we're making honor visible around Grounds," he said. Snider said committee members and educators tabled the Lawn and distributed short surveys with questions pertaining to the meaning of the word honor, the value of honor in a friendship and what it means to be an honorable person. "Honor doesn't have to solely relate to academics," Snider said. About 1,000 surveys were collected and Snider said she plans to post the results on the Honor Web site in the next two weeks. Honor educators and other committee members also sent out mass e-mails to their respective schools and distributed hundreds of flyers. Roundtables were held in Newcomb Hall throughout the week to initiate discussions among students and faculty about honor-related topics.
