University of Virginia Library

Candidates

Bill Zink

I feel that the secrecy which
surrounds individual decisions of
the Honor Committee must remain
in order to protect the rights of the
students involved. However, in
aspects of the Honor Committee
operation other than that of
judging cases, student participation
should be encouraged. Hopefully
through open meetings of the
Committee where interested
students can question the policy
and procedure of the Honor
System, through referendums,
surveys and polls where the student
body as a whole can express its
opinions on these questions, and
through increased availability of
literature dealing with the Honor
System, students would better
understand the system and the
Honor Committee could better
reflect the opinions of the student
body.

Richard Durkes

4. Absolutely. Indeed the
ultimate guilty decisions of the
Honor Committee are well known
through that "black box" that the
Honor Committee allows the
Cavalier Daily to print. However,
the Honor Committee belies the
secrecy charge because of its failure
to explain more fully the general
nature of the various honor
violations (this does not mean
inclusion of names or other
particulars) through any sort of
media. My feelings that the
essential nature of the Honor
Committee is not to try students,
although this is one of their chief
responsibilities, but to assume a
role which encourages discussion of
the honor system. Apparently the
present committee disagrees with
me on this point.

Consequently I feel it is equally
essential for the Committee to
provide a running commentary of
what is being defined as honor
through the course of the year. I
believe that the Honor Committee
must take an activist role in
promoting honor through a
constant discourse in the existing
media. I submit the following
means of encouraging honor and
discouraging the prevalent secret or
merely unexplained nature of the
Honor Committee:

1) I will establish an Honor
Committee mailing address with the
express purpose of eliciting
comment on honor at UVA:

2) As I stated above I will
encourage that the Honor
Committee inform the students of
UVA through the CD what is being
defined contemporarily as honor by
the Committee. This is to be
accomplished through expanded
explanation in the CD.

3) Black boxes offer nothing
positive to an honor system since
they merely further the secretive
aura presently surrounding the
Honor Committee and the
proceedings therein. Hence, I will
encourage that they be abolished.

4) In general I will encourage
any interested person to publicly
challenge the system in hopes that
the criticism will yield a more
viable system. This can be done
through open forums or through
any public media i.e. radio or
publications.