The Honor Committee is exploring a plan to extend the honor system to restaurants on the Corner, allowing students who have forgotten cash or a credit card to dine first and pay later.
Fourth-year Commerce student Joseph Martin, the Committee’s vice chair for education, said the goal is to extend the honor system outside the traditional University setting. He said University students reflect the values of the honor system off-Grounds and should be able to reap its benefits in the larger community.
“Teachers, students, and other members of the community trust U.Va. students to not lie, cheat, or steal," Martin said. "Our thoughts are that we would basically allow Corner merchants to take students on their word.”
Under the proposed system, restaurants would record a students’ information and serve them whatever they ordered with the understanding that they would come back later to pay. If a student failed to uphold their end of the agreement, the Committee would cover the amount owed the business and the service would no longer be offered to the student in question.
A similar system is already in place at some Corner establishments.
Littlejohn’s Deli owner Chris Strong and Take It Away Sandwich Shop owner Tom Bowe have been allowing students to pay for meals later if they do not have the ability to pay right away for years. They said the system has been successful.
“We have always allowed students who have forgotten their wallets [or have had their card declined] to ‘take it away’ and return later with the money,” Bowe said in an email. “This works in our favor too because by the time we get to the point of paying, we have already made their order. We can't really sell their sandwich to someone else.”
But not all Corner merchants are in favor of giving a regulated structure to the system. Andy McClure, former president of the Corner Merchants Association and owner of Biltmore and The Virginian, said he wasn’t sure how useful such a formal policy would be.
“I guess my opinion was that this situation [students being unable to pay] seems like a rarity,” McClure said in an email. “If someone did forget their wallet I can't imagine a merchant calling the police or anything like that.”
McClure also said he thought it would be hard to discriminate between students and other members of the community, and he said the system has the potential to be abused if the general public was made aware of it.
Under the proposed system, the Committee would only pay back Corner merchants when a student fails to pay his or her debts. Martin said the Committee is not looking to punish students who accidentally forget to pay back a debt.
“We’re not going to file Honor charges … if someone accidentally forgets to pay back,” Martin said. “It’s not meant to be punitive.”
Committee members are currently gauging interest among merchants in the program. Martin said he would like to see the system up and running by the end of the semester.
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