At Sunday night's weekly Honor Committee meeting, third-year Law student Sam Leven spoke to the Committee about the concerns of a recently created support group for students accused and convicted of honor offenses. The organization, called the Student Outreach Program, is composed of current or former students who have been charged with an honor offense. The support group suggested that honor advisers be able to refer accused students to its organization for further assistance.
Committee Chair David Truetzel made it clear that the Committee could not endorse or assist the organization. "The Committee fulfills a mission as directed by the Board of Visitors ... Involving ourselves with an outside group is just not something the Committee can do," Truetzel said. "Even handing out fliers [about the support group] to students is itself a kind of implicit endorsement and would not be a prudent move."
The Committee has made the necessary decision and recognizes that the outreach group is free to advise students and promote itself as it pleases. The Committee would expose itself to significant risk if it referred students to organizations falling outside of its authority. The Student Outreach Program now must take it upon itself to raise awareness about its services.
The group performs an important function. Since the dissolution of Hoos Against Single Sanction last year, the outreach organization fills something of a void in the University community in that it offers students a different perspective on the honor system. Though HASS served as a watchdog group, whereas the Student Outreach Program focuses on counseling and advising students, it is helpful for the accused to have an outside resource available when facing an honor trial. The organization offers something that the Committee and Counseling and Professional Services cannot; no amount of training can provide the same level of support and empathy that someone who has gone through the process can, said Leven, who is not a member of the outreach group.
The Student Outreach Program should aim to vigorously promote itself to the University community. That task may prove to be logistically challenging because not all members are current students - the group also consists of alumni and former students who were convicted and subsequently expelled from the University. Those members on Grounds, however, must take up the group's cause with fervor. The group should both flier and routinely participate in activity fairs, as much for raw promotion as for recruiting new members. If students simply know that the organization exists, they will be likely to call upon it should they ever become implicated in the honor process.
The Committee made a reasonable decision to not endorse or assist the group, but the Student Outreach Program should take charge of its own destiny. The role it can play at the University is both genuine and valuable - now it must actively stake its position on the University's organizational landscape.
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