University of Virginia Library

Candidates Seek Honor Penalty Reform

Do you think the Honor System is working
well? Does it have full support? If now, why?
What can be done to maximize student support.

Jeff Kirsch (VPP)

I do not feel the Honor System is
functioning as well as we tend to believe
it is. Though its basic tenets are generally
upheld, there are many students who feel
alienated by the system - they entertain
doubts and offer much intelligent criticism.

Many students question their right to
control the life and actions of another,
especially considering the rigidity and longevity
of the penalty. Also, there are those who are
unwilling to support a system with the
workings of which they sense little contact.

In order to incorporate into the system
those who are dissatisfied, we can no longer
shirk the responsibility of answering their
attacks through action. Every possible channel
of communication must be employed to deter
the questions and doubts based on a lack of
information. We must encourage the student
body to take part in its own system.

If we continue to ignore these complaints
and refuse to consider a move from the present
scope and penalty, the viability of the system
will, and should be, continually threatened.

Dave Bowman (JP)

Our Honor System will "work well"
only if it maintains the support of a
consensus of student opinion as to its
scope and penalty. It is the responsibility
of the member of the Honor Committee
to interpret and reflect rather than to
dictate the evolution of student sentiment.
As the University community has grown
in size and diversity, it has become increasingly
difficult for the member of the Honor
Committee to reflect, though personal experience
and contact, the consensus of honor
among the current student generation.

As personal dialogue between the Honor
Committee and the students has become more
difficult, the feeling among students of personal
involvement in the System has declined. The
Honor System has become something vague and
distant, and the Honor Committee has appeared
more and more isolated.

The Honor Committee must initiate an
intensive dialogue with the students through
random sample polls and surveys, printed
communications made public through The
Cavalier Daily, and the use of capable student
aids to facilitate the exchange of ideas.

What particular changes would you make to
strengthen the system's operation? What
present programs or facets would you stress or
strengthen?

Jeff Kirsch (VPP)

There is nothing so sacred in the
Honor System that should not be subject
to continual questioning, open debate,
and change. This includes both variables
scope and penalty.

We may safely assume that a substantial
number of students hesitate, or
refuse, to confront another with an honor
offense. If it were determined that the single
penalty is the cause of this reluctance, and I
feel it most likely is, the penalty must change.
The best alternative would be to give the
student one chance to return to the University
after a full semester suspension.

In addition to the penalty, we should also
question whether the stigma of an honor
offense should follow a student in his life
outside the University or whether it should
affect him only where the act was committed.

It cannot be argued that any change in the
scope and/or the penalty would necessarily
weaken the Honor System, for any modification
which brings more support can only
strengthen it.

What particular changes would you make to
strengthen the system's operation? What
present programs or facets would you stress or
strengthen?

Dave Bowman (JP)

The Honor System will remain viable
with the single penalty of dismissal only
if:

1) that behavior which is not considered
unmistakably reprehensible by
the current student generation is eliminated
from the System's scope, and

2) the consensus of student opinion
continues to accept the validity of the single
sanction. I am personally in favor of retaining
the single penalty because, in my opinion, its
predictive effects on the System can be explained
rationally as well as emotionally. If elected to
the Honor Committee.

I would defend those aspects of the System
which to me are positive and justifiable. But it
would be my responsibility to search out
student opinion, and to direct the evolution of
the System both its penalty and scope
according to the sentiments of our student
generation.

Only if student opinion were to reject the
validity of the single sanction, would I favor the
incorporation of an alternative penalty system:
the first offense, 1-year's suspension: second
offense, dismissal.