The Honor Committee held its first meeting of the 2025-2026 new term Sunday evening, during which members introduced themselves and discussed their goals for the semester. The Committee also discussed potential plans to support students during "finals pushes" — the efforts the Committee makes to support students during finals season.
Thomas Ackleson, Committee chair and third-year Engineering student, began by introducing himself and discussing his goals and priorities for improving the honor system. Ackleson outlined his restorative vision for the honor system and highlighted the importance of engaging with the University community.
“I think the core theme [of the term] is developing the meaning of the honor system. People really need to believe in it,” Ackleson said. “I think one of the really important ways to do that is to show people what we do … demonstrating how our process has changed, highlighting important statistics, letting people make up their own minds about what we do and how well we do it.”
Ackleson highlighted the need for transparency regarding how the honor system has evolved from the previous single-sanction system where expulsion was the only sanction for committing an Honor offense. Honor now relies on a multi-sanction system where there are a wide variety of sanctions for different Honor offenses.
Cody Scarce, Committee member and second-year College student, also noted the importance of remaining visible and actively engaging the University community through different events and outreach efforts.
“One of the big things I want to work on is visibility for honor … putting ourselves more out into the community,” Scarce said. “Talking with people, making friends, shaking hands … We’re real people too, we’re not just someone trying to get people in trouble or send them a sanction.”
Scarce stated that a student’s first interaction with the honor system should not be when getting reported for an offense by someone else. Instead, students should be given the opportunity to interact with Honor by asking questions, learning and engaging with the system, Scarce said.
Alexander Church, vice chair for investigations and third-year Engineering student, also described the importance of continuously engaging the Support Officer pool. This pool consists of students selected annually by the Selection and Recruitment Commitment to investigate cases, advise accused students and advocate for students at trial. Church currently oversees and recruits all of the honor advisors who serve as sources of information and points of contact for students.
Church said that he is working on ways to improve support officer bonding to ensure that the incoming fall training class forms strong interpersonal relationships with each other.
“I think it's really easy, especially when support officers meet once or twice a month, to not really build connections between each other,” Church said. “Making sure that [support officers] know each other…will make their work in honor more impactful.”
Following the discussion of term goals, the Committee turned its attention to initiatives aimed at supporting students during finals season, referred to by the Committee members as “finals pushes.”
Genny Freed, vice chair for sanctions and second-year College student, noted the successes of tabling and handing out slime as a sensory item for help to help relieve stress during the week of final exams last year. She also discussed the potential to partner with different organizations on Grounds to help students relieve stress.
The Committee has not made formal announcements yet, but members have repeatedly discussed the idea of partnerships and co-sponsorships with different groups on Grounds to increase the visibility of the Committee, while also supporting students.
Mary Holland Mason, vice chair for hearings and third-year Batten student, also proposed the idea of distributing free bluebooks — lined booklets used for writing essays and short answers during exams — to students in the coming weeks.
“[The Committee is] also thinking of providing blue books [to students], since a lot of undergraduate classes have an essay writing component evaluation … on the idea of honor providing services and privileges to the University community,” Mason said.
Ackleson stated that the Committee provided this service last year during finals season. He said that this initiative was in-demand as the Committee had to purchase the bookstore’s entire supply of bluebooks to match student demand.
Honor will continue to discuss efforts to support the student body during finals season in the Council’s last meeting of the semester.
The Committee will reconvene April 27, after Easter for its final meeting.
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