Northern Neck Times

HONOR VOTE RESTORES EXPULSION OPTION IN NEW MULTI-SANCTION SYSTEM

Students at the University of Virginia voted this month to restore the option to expel someone if they are found to have violated the honor code as part of a new, multi-sanction system. The move comes one year after students voted overwhelmingly to remove the single-sanction action of expulsion when a student is found to have stolen, lied or cheated.

In voting that ended March 2, more than 88% of students voted on the new option as part of an overhaul of the constitution, which guides the University’s Honor Committee.

Three of the since-approved guidelines were highlighted in a Cavalier Daily opinion piece published by the Honor Committee in February, ahead of the vote.

First, when an honor case is heard, the panel will include a few randomly selected students instead of a group comprised solely of Honor Committee representatives.

Second, the option to expel a student for an honor violation “comes with strong guardrails to prevent its inappropriate use,” reads the piece. Examples include the ability of students found guilty to suggest a sanction “most appropriate for their case.”

Third, students who submit an “informed retraction,” admitting guilt before trial, are no longer automatically suspended for two semesters. Instead, those who demonstrate accountability for their honor code violation will, in concert with the person who brings the charge and a special Panel for Sanction, “agree upon appropriate sanctions that reflects [sic] the student’s recommitment to the Community of Trust,” the Honor Committee wrote.

Gabrielle Bray, who chairs the Honor Committee, said the idea to introduce a multi-sanction system at UVA “has been an ongoing conversation for about 50 years” and last year’s vote was “a turning point, but it’s not necessarily where we wanted to end up.”

Thus, the new measures also address an issue that last year’s vote did not: the fair treatment of first-generation and low-income students, graduate students, international students and student-athletes, she said. 

“Those groups have been disproportionately affected by Honor in the past,” Bray said. For international students, travel visas can be become complicated if a person is suspended for a year. “It complicates student-athlete status,” Bray said. “What do you do with this year of eligibility? If you are on a leave of absence, can you return?”

Bray said the previous iteration of the constitution heightened “existing socioeconomic issues.”

“I think the classic example [is] of a student who can use it as a gap year and a student who will be working at home for a year,” she said. “Those are two wildly different experiences that I think employers will look at very differently.”

In the fall, the Honor Committee held a constitutional convention of 30 student groups in an effort to build support for voting “yes” to the new constitution.

Original source can be found here