The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 29, 1993 Page: 2 of 20
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Honor Council
Proposed changes are a good start;
students must carefally consider the issues ANHEUSER- BUSCH
The Honor System has been central to life at Rice for many years and
has helped shape the university. Unfortunately, such a strong tradition
carries problems as well as advantages. The Honor Council constitution
has not been completely revised since 1958; in attempting a comprehen-
sive revision, the current Honor Council has undertaken a significant
task. Most of the proposed changes are good ones. Because the system is
so old and so important to Rice, however, it will be difficult to make all the
changes necessary, and there are many weighty issues involved- A few of
the changes might benefit from more thought and from student input
•A three-member board would hear appeals of the council's decisions.
I "he new constitution should include this board or some variation of it,
because it takes appellate power out of the hands of an individual adminis-
trator and leaves some authority with the students—the foundation of the
Honor System. In its current form, the board would include the dean of
students, a student chosen by the SA Senate, and a representative of the
president. A possible variation, one that might make it more attractive to
the administration, would replace the president's representative with
another person (possibly a faculty member); in this version, the president
would still be the last level of appeals. Whatever form the appeals proce-
dure ultimately takes, it should require public abstracts which communi-
cate the state of every appeal. Abstracts are a vital part of the Rice justice
system, and students must be allowed to see the complete path of all
appeals.
•Freshman representatives would be given full voting power after
attending two hearings or trials. (Though the constitution gives freshmen
only an advisory position, allowing freshman reps to vote is the current
practice.) A major objection to the change is that freshmen have not had
much experience with the Honor System and its role at Rice. Honor
Council members have said that they don't believe the lack of experience
presents a problem, because freshman reps don't vote until the very end
of the first semester, at the earliest. It would be better to allow the
freshman reps voting power only during the second semester—that way
they can themselves experience the Honor Code in action and have a
basis from which to make decisions.
•An "elastic clause" would be added to allow the council to make
minor exceptions to the constitution under extraordinary circumstances.
This change may prove helpful in a few cases. However, the council must
be careful to keep the excepjions minor and to keep them within the spirit
of the constitution, as the proposed clause states. Inherent with this
change is the limitation that, except in these rare cases, the council must
follow the constitution strictly. Honor Council trials are necessarily se-
cret—in order to have confidence in the process, students must be able to
have faith that the constitution is being followed.
'Ihe revision committee has made a strong start It has presented
many good suggestions and, unavoidably, a few that should be thought
out more fully. Since such an important system is at stake, every student
at Rice should carefully consider and discuss the proposed changes.
The Honor Council should do as much as possible to promote student
discussion of the issues. To do so, it must make the proposals public as
early as possible and must provide students with complete information
every step of the way. It is also vital that the Honor Council incorporate
student suggestions into the changes that finally appear on the ballot.
¥ The / I aI ihci ui«
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AMERICAN FEDERATION
OF TEACHERS
I-93
'um/j
Honor Council proposes granting formal
voting power to freshman representatives
To the editors,
As you probably already know, the
Honor Council has made extensive
revisions to our Honor Code over the
past semester in an attempt to update
the Constitution and to better reflect
the true nature of the Honor System
as it is now implemented at Rice Uni-
versity. Among the many changes we,
the Honor Council, have proposed are
THE EDITOR
Letters
those ranging from slight wording
changes to major revisions of our
present policy.
During the next few weeks, we
hope to present to the student body
the major changes and our reasoning
for proposing such changes, so that
you will have an opportunity to make
an informed decision when voting on
these issues. In this letter I am ad-
dressing only one of these changes:
the voting status of freshman repre-
sentatives.
Under our current constitution two
freshman representatives are chosen
each fall by means of interviews. These
members are said to "serve in an advi-
sory capacity and may attend trials
and hearings, but may not vote" (Ar-
ticle VI, current constitution). We are
proposing that "they will receive full
voting status after attending one trial
and one hearing" (Article VI, proposed
constitution). In the past the Council
has appointed freshman representa-
tives as voting members on a case-by-
case basis when necessary. Naturally,
this was not done
until the individual
freshman repre-
sentatives had ob-
served some trials
and/or hearings
and felt comfort-
able with their per-
sonal working
knowledge of the
Honor System
' This practice developed due to the
unavailability of other members to
serve on cases and the need to have a
quorum of members present The
Council's justification for such action
was that we do have the power to
appoint alternate members when cir-
cumstances arise so as to prevent a
necessary quorum, and in these in-
stances we chose to appoint a fresh-
man representative because of their
experiences in observing the Council.
The proposed change would do
away with the need to appoint fresh-
men representatives on a case-by-case
basis. This does appear to be a major
change to the current constitution,
but in reality it is only a reiteration of
a power we currently possess in refer-
ence to a very specific instance: that of
choosing to appoint freshman repre-
sentatives as voting members, instead
of other members of the Rice commu-
nity. It seems only logical that the
Councilwould appoint alternate mem
bers who have had close experiences
with the Council, and this change sun-
ply expresses this logic explicitly.
-On© concern which has been ex-
pressed is that because freshman rep-
resentatives are not elected by their
class they have no mandate to be vot-
ing members of the Council.
Each case which comes before the
Council is of a highly individualized
nature, and we do not portray the
views of any particular class when
appoint alternate members when nec-
essary, so indirectly they are chosen
by the student body. In addition, there
are other members of the Council
who are not directly elected: the three
graduate student representatives.
These three members are chosen by
the Graduate Student Association
Council, rather than being elected di-
rectly by the entire graduate student
body, and yet they are accorded full
voting statue within our constitution.
As a former freshman representa-
tive, I can attest to the fact that no
undue pressure is placed on a fresh-
man to vote until he or she feels com
fortable with that duty. The main con-
cern of the Council is that no mem
bers vote until they gain experience
by observing the Council's proceed-
ings on a few cases. After spring elec-
tions, all new members go through
such a process before serving as a
voting member.
With the increasing case load
over the past few years, the
granting of voting status will
only serve to aid the Council
in its duties.
making our decision. Instead we con-
centrate on the particularities of the
case at hand, no matter to which class
each of us belongs.
The concerns of each class should
be identical: to uphold the academic
integrity of Rice University. Electing
* members by class is indeed the mecha-
In the past the Council has
appointed freshman represen-
tatives as voting members on
a case by case basis.
Qf
nism by which the Council is created,
but this is not to imply that each class
has different concerns or agendas with
respect to the Honor System. Thus,
the freshman representatives are cho-
sen based on the commitment to the
Honor System that they show during
their individual interviews^and not on
whether they portray a ifreshffl&n"
frame of mind or specific "freshman"
concerns.
We, the other members of the
Council are elected by the student
body, and we do have the power to
This means that a
freshman repre-
sentative would be
treated no differ-
ently than a newly
elected sopho-
more, junior, or
senior representa-
tive. But once this
familiarity with the
Honor System is
achieved, it would
seem that a new freshman is just as
capable of making an informed deci-
sion as a new sophomore or junior
representative.
The Council by no means experi-
ences a loss of confidence when a
freshman representative is appointed
as a voting member, and this change
reflects our continued confidence in
their positions.
The proposed change to the role of
freshman representatives is a much
needed change. With the increasing
case load-over the past few years, the
granting ofvoting status will only serve
to aid the Council in its duties. We feel
that defining their roles more explic-
itly will more clearly reflect the true
duties of freshman representatives,
as well as avoid ambiguities and the
formality of appointing voting mem-
bers.
As with all of the proposed changes,
the Honor Council will be happy to
discuss any questionsorconcernsyou
may have. We hope that as the student
body you will support the proposed
changes in the upcoming referendum
so that we may better serve theefltire
Rice community.
Abigail Martin, and
the Honor Council
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Kim, Leezie & Carson, Chad. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 80, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 29, 1993, newspaper, January 29, 1993; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245830/m1/2/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.