The Story
Reconsidering a Student-Run Honor Council
The recent controversy surrounding the Honor Council brings up a pivotal question: Is a student-run Honor Council ethical?
The William and Mary Honor Council was the subject of a front page headline in a recent edition of The Virginia Informer. I’m not going to speculate about any bias within the story or the performance of specific members of the Honor Council. Nor am I questioning the significance of the Honor Code, or the community that upholds it. Rather, I believe it is important to focus whether or not a student-run body can ethically uphold the Honor Code.
The most obvious problem with the Honor Council comes with the potential for a conflict of interest between students on the Council and accused parties. This is a particularly dangerous problem at a small school like William and Mary, where the chance of encountering such a conflict is relatively high. In no way am I implying that members of the Honor Council have a hidden agenda. However, any relationship at all between an Honor Council member and an accused student can taint the results of a case.
Although proponents of the student-run Honor Council argue that student involvement in the honor process is important, it alienates more students than it involves. The Honor Council in its current state gives a small group of students the power to ruin other students’ futures. It is simply unethical to allow certain students’ opinions about a conflict to outweigh those of other students. It is dangerous to let peers decide the outcome of cases that can affect any student for a lifetime.
Some argue that there is time given before the trial to determine whether the potential for conflict exists. Although this is a valid point, it would be much more effective to avoid a conflict altogether by having a faculty run Honor Council. Such a body would be accustomed to adhering to procedural guidelines. As we have seen so far, this is not always the case with students. Recent violations of the procedural guidelines are concerning.
When members of the Honor Council are not informing accused students in sufficient time (72 hours) to determine a conflict of interest, we should be worried. When members of the Honor Council are not sending complete evidence to accused students, we should be worried. When the Honor Council claims that it has a “duty” to charge other students in order to improve their “moral character”, even when the issue is resolved within the party, we should be worried. When the Honor Council undermines the rights of the accused and claims that procedural violations are “not significant,” we should be worried.
An Honor Code violation can destroy a student’s academic career, and we must ensure that the guidelines provided by the honor system are followed accurately by the Honor Council. We cannot allow the Honor Code to be puffery used to attract possible applicants. We must take the Honor Code seriously, and we must consider a re-evaluation of a student-run Honor Council.
Ahmed Khokar is a staff columnist for the DSJ. His views do not necessarily represent those of the entire staff.