Honor

For those who don't know, U.Va. has an extremely pervasive honor code (you're bound by it at all times within the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County, as well as in other places when you're representing yourself as a U.Va. student) with a single sanction. That means that if you're found guilty of an honor code violation, you're asked to leave the University; or, if you've already graduated, your degree is revoked.

This week, the Cavalier Daily has been running a series of articles about a U.Va. undergrad's honor conviction and upcoming appeals trial. After reading them, I'm really concerned about what's going to happen this Sunday at the trial. I tried to get tickets to go see the trial myself, but they were all gone when I called. Serving on the Honor Committee is something I've wanted to do since I was an undergrad here, but I'm not sure how I feel about how things have proceeded in this student's case. The articles are here:

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four

The single sanction is always controversial, and every few years there's a vote on whether to continue having it as a part of the honor code. To me, the single sanction is entirely fair: we enter this community deliberately; we sign the honor pledge when we enroll; those of us who violate the honor code shouldn't be a part of the community. But the flip side of this severe sanction is that trials need to be carried out extremely carefully. I hope that this Sunday will see that happen.