Honor Council Minutes

September 17, 2000

“I’m pretty sure its spotted dick.” - Sarah

Present: Ben Huebner (secretary), Randy Ko, Lucy Lyon (co-chair), Sarah Waring, Caitlin Costello, Jenn Louie (co-chair), Tyson Oberndorfer, Ari Worthman, Hannah Dickinson, Celeste Moore, Ethan Sorrelgreen, Amelia Winchester, Andrew Peterson, Gayathri Ramabadran, Elizabeth Sullivan, Rachel Werner

I. Moment of Silence.

II. Welcome and Introductions

Jenn and Lucy welcomed all Honor Council (HC) members new and old to the first HC meeting of the year and had us introduce ourselves. They then passed out the hallowed Honor Council folder, with copies of the Honor Code, the Honor Council Handbook, and the Charlie and Mike and John abstracts for reference.

III. Committees

Before deciding which committees would be formed this semester, there was a short discussion concerning the structure of the committees themselves. Ben proposed that non-HC members be encouraged to join the committees so that community members with a particular interest in an issue who did not have the time to be on HC could also participate. He also suggested that each committee should have a chair in order to make them more efficient and accountable. The only problem he saw with this plan was that committee chairs might make Honor Council to hierarchical. Ethan, Randy, and Ari all suggested to varying degrees that the hierarchy problem did not overly trouble them because it would be akin to the chair system already used on HC. Jenn suggested that instead of chairs, each committee could have a “point-person” who would both act as an informal chair and also as the contact person for community members interested in the particular issue the committee addressed. Council came to a general agreement that this was a good plan.

On a related topic, Ari noted that committee work often falls by the wayside when Council members go on trial. Ari believed that the HC Secretary should act as a committee facilitator. The job would entail both motivating committees to accomplish Honor Council’s and the community’s goals and redistributing committee work to members of HC who are not currently on juries. Ethan believed that Ari’s plan was a good one, but should only be implemented if it was truly needed (i.e. Council gets really busy). Ari agreed and HC came to a general agreement on the plan.

A list of committees for this semester was then compiled:

JSAAPP - As stated in the Alcohol Policy, two members of the Joint Student-Administration Alcohol Policy Panel (JSAAPP) are appointed from Honor Council. JSAAPP is the body on campus which administers the Alcohol Policy. Members: Caitlin and Amelia

Faculty Relations - This committee seeks to improve the relationship between the faculty and the student body, especially concerning Honor Code matters. Members: Ethan, Andrew, Tyson, and Jenn

Student Outreach - This is a broad-based committee which tries to facilitate Honor Code discussion throughout the student body. This year the committee, among other random and exciting tasks, will investigate creating liaisons with all student organizations on campus (see below). Members: Celeste, Hannah, Ari, Elizabeth, Rachel, Randy, Tyson, Ben, Jenn, and Lucy

Admissions - The Admissions Committee will continue their work from last year, including rewriting the Honor Code question on the application and generally acting as a resource for the Admissions office. Members: Celeste, Ari, Gayathri, Andrew, Amelia, and Jenn

SFP - Lucy pointed out that the Student Facilitate Panel (SFP) procedure seems to have some fatal flaws (see the Mike and John abstract). This committee will begin to look at revising or rewriting the SFP procedure, a process used for social issues in which mediation seems to be a better option than a Joint-Panel. Members: Lucy, Ethan, Caitlin, and Hannah

Council Breaking the Code - As the Star Wars abstracts (that’s right, abstracts, as in more than one) showed, a member of Honor Council breaking the Honor Code has serious repercussions which are not clearly addressed in the Code. This committee will begin to look at the issue. Members: Randy, Ari, Rachel, Sarah, Lucy, and Ben

Mock Trial - The Mock Trial is a participatory event that allows community members to experience what happens when Honor Council stops being nice, and starts getting real. Yeah, like even worse than the San Francisco season. This year faculty members, in addition to students, will be invited to try their hand at a mock academic trial. Members: Ben, Jenn, and Andrew

Web Page, Honor Council Board, and Abstract Binder - The Honor Council web page (www.students.haverford.edu/code/) has all sorts of goodies, including old abstracts and a list of your beloved Honor Council representatives. The HC board in the campus center is a good place to find out about HC events. The abstract binder in Magill (just ask for it at the front desk) has basically every abstract since the dawn of time (or at least the mid-1980’s), and is a great resource. This committee will make sure that all of these resources are updated and looking good. Members: Gayathri, Hannah, and Sarah

Customs/HCO Relations - This group works with HCO and Customs committees to indoctrinate, I mean teach, Customs groups about the Honor Code. Members: Rachel, Amelia, Ethan, and Jenn

Point-people will be chosen in the next week for each committee (see above). If you are interested in joining one of these committees, please contact the point-person next week.

IV. Student Outreach

During our discussion of committees, we had an extended discussion about the idea of sending out HC envoys to various organizations on campus in order to proactively address Code concerns. Ethan questioned whether this approach would be trying too hard to start relationships with organizations which might not want Honor Council involvement. Hannah believed that this would be a great form of community outreach, since Council can be a very intimidating body. Ari suggested that a liaison be created for every organization on campus. A short discussion was held about the role and scope of this liaison program, and the issue was finally kicked over to those crazy kids on the Student Outreach Committee for further discussion.

V. Honor Council Retreat

The bi-annual Honor Council retreat will be held Saturday October 7th to Sunday October 8th. As stated in the Honor Code, members will receive diversity training, as well as consensus, team-building, and other such debauchery.

VI. Rape and Sexual Assault Mock Trial

On September 26th and 27th, Brett Sokolow will be coming to Haverford to test a sexual assault policy model, using 5 HC members and members of the Administration. The event will be satellite broadcast to a number of other schools. A whole bunch of Council members tentatively volunteered for the project. More info to come in next weeks exciting minutes.

VII. Dinner with Dean Tolliver

Dean Joe Tolliver has asked Honor Council to have dinner with him on a monthly basis in order to hear our concerns and facilitate a better student-administration working relationship. We allowed as this sounded like a pretty damn good idea to us. Scheduling upcoming . . . .

VIII. Confidential Portion, Moment of Silence

Note: Honor Council meets in the Pendle Hill Room (left side of the DC, back behind the dishwashing area, last door on the left) on Sundays at 5 PM and we love visitors. If you have a question/comment/complaint for us come on down. Next week for a one time only event, we’ll be in the Smith Room (next to Pendle Hill) though.

Wow, my first minutes. I’m so excited, I might just forget to say something important, like, oh yeah, the statements/opinions/editorial comments/grammatical errors found in these minutes emanate solely from the Secretary, and therefore do not represent the views/ideas/ditherings/religions/belief systems of the Administration, Faculty, Staff, Haverford College, or any plant life found therein. Why are you still reading. Isn’t three pages enough? Go away. Come on. Git. Don’t make me come over there. Don’t make me get out of this chair, pal, I’ll bust your $&^%$* &^% so hard your proctologist will feel it.