As a member of the Honor
Committee who voted with Mr.
Davidson for a graduated
penalty system, I feel
compelled to respond to some
of the comments and
accusations that he is quoted as
having made in Wednesday's
CD. In doing this it is necessary
to reflect back on the report of
the deliberations of the Honor
Committee concerning the
analysis of the poll results as
reported in Monday's special
issue of the CD in a long article
authored by the chairman of
the Honor Committee, Mr.
Bagby.
If Mr. Davidson really
believes that "Whether
students understand appellate
procedures of an honor trial or
the care with which an honor
trial is conducted is not an
issue", he is the only member
of the committee who holds
that view. As an individual who
took part in virtually all of the
many discussions the
committee held as it attempted
to interpret the meanings of
the poll, I can state assuredly
that the committee was very
concerned over the apparent
lack of knowledge about some
of the basic elements of the
Honor System that the poll
respondents revealed. The
appellate procedures and the
care taken during the conduct
of a trial are but two of these
While it is technically true
that only three actual votes
were taken during deliberation
over change of sanction, the
committee came to general
agreement on many other
points-including the need to
attempt to better inform the
student body about the Honor
System. It was because of this
need that at least some
members of the committee felt
that this was not an
appropriate time to conduct a
referendum on the sanction
question. For, as the quote
from the Student Referendum
Committee stated: "an
intelligent vote on the single
sanction can not be made
unless students are informed
about the issues."
Lastly, because of Mr.
Davidson's innuendoes hinting
that Mr. Bagby's reporting of
the analysis of the poll results
lacked objectivity and failed to
reflect conclusions reached by
the entire Committee, I must
state that I feel that it is Mr.
Davidson that is selecting out
certain information from the
poll and the analysis of it and
presenting that to the
University community while
neglecting to present other
data, just as important, from
the same poll that would
present a more balanced
picture had it been included in
his presentation. As I read Mr.
Bagby's account of the Honor
Committee's deliberations, I
felt very satisfied that he did a
very good job in presenting the
views of the various members
of the committee-and in ALL
cases presented the view of the
majority of the committee
members.
