News
By Edward Hock
|
October 5, 1999
In response to the Board of Visitors' concerns about the fairness of the Honor Committee's appeal process, the Committee has taken steps to ensure that its members will not be reviewing cases on which they have previously worked.
Last winter, the Board suggested the Committee consider allowing an outside body to hear appeals of Honor cases to avoid possible bias during the appeals process, which allows the vice chair for trials to screen the appeal, even if he or she was involved in the case at an earlier stage.
But Sunday night the Committee changed its bylaws in an attempt to address the Board's concerns without allowing an outside body to review their decisions.
Previously, the vice chair for trials had the power to screen appeals before either dismissing them or sending them on to a pre-appeal panel.
Under the new bylaw, the move will take this discretionary power away from the vice chair for trials and distribute it among Committee members.
The change will free the vice chair for trials to sit on Investigative Panels and to chair trials.
