University of Virginia Library

J. Michael Murphy (VPP)

To insure the legality of the Honor System
we must be concerned with two important
areas 1) a person's right to a "fair hearing"
and 2) the right to appeal. While I am in favor
of a clarification and an extension of the appeal
procedure to insure the legality of the System
and fairness to the individual, I also realize that
the Honor Committee itself has been working
on this question and that an appeal system is
forthcoming.

Ideally it would be best to allow an appeal
and a retrial to anyone who might desire such.
But realistically speaking, the workload of trials
could become overburdening if that were so.

I think that we should attempt to grant a
retrial to those who request it, but I also realize
that if this were done, it might be necessary to
have a third body of the Committee (aside from
the group which originally heard the trial, and
the group which would hear the trial de novo)
which would determine whether a person had
grounds to request an appeal.

Within a person's right to a "fair hearing" we
must also consider whether or not lawyers are
to represent the accused. However, the question
also arises as to whether we will be able to
prevent lawyers from representing students.

I do not think it is necessary to have lawyers
in the honor trials, but I also realize that we
must make sure we are insuring an individual's
right to a "fair hearing."

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