Honor Council Minutes

September 24, 2000

“Rachel, sex at 9 PM.” - Lucy

Present: Ben Huebner (secretary), Randy Ko, Lucy Lyon (co-chair), 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

Absent: Sarah Waring

Visitors: Jeff Kearns, Judson Redmond

I. Moment of Silence.

II. Multicultural Juror List (MJL) - Being the courteous people that we are, we decided to let our guest talk first. Jeff Kearns came to Council with concerns about the Multicultural Juror List after having an on-going e-mail conversation about the list with Ben. Jeff wanted to know Council’s interpretation of the MJL. Having talked to a number of people on campus, Jeff believed that the MJL was antiquated since minority students make up a larger percentage of the campus than when the MJL was instituted in 1994. Jeff thought that the MJL seemed to be directed strictly at minority students, while classifying all white students as non-diverse. He suggested that instead of the current system, the multicultural list should include all students, and students who felt they were not multicultural could e-mail to take themselves off the list. Ari said that changing the status quo of the list wouldn’t really be appropriate, especially because the current system makes people actively consider their multicultural identity. Jenn noted that there are certainly people who put themselves on the MJL who are not minorities, but believe that they are multicultural in some other way. Referring to their e-mail conversation, Jeff asked Ben why he automatically believed that a all-white jury was a non-diverse one. Ben replied that he believed that diversity is multifaceted, and that an all-white jury would be non-diverse, but so would an all-female jury, or an all-Democrat jury. Beyond that, Ben felt that racial and sexual discrimination produced different perspectives that were very important in a jury situation. Jeff asked Ben if he thought an all-Asian jury would be non-diverse. Jenn believed that a discussion based on hypotheticals was problematic, and also pointed out that there were legitimacy problems with any jury that was non-diverse.

Jeff produced a sheet of statistics showing that the larger proportion of minorities on campus meant that the MJL was unnecessary in its current form. Hannah noted that despite the statistics, finding a jury was often difficult, and the MJL insured that in this situation a suitably diverse jury was found. Randy agreed with many of Jeff’s points, but noted that while the current system might not be completely fair, such procedures as the MJL were cultural institutions to protect against the prospect of racism. Jeff went on to say that he didn’t feel that a change in the Code was necessary to change the MJL, but instead Council could just redefine “multicultural” to mean everyone on campus. Randy and Lucy both replied that the entire student body should be involved in such a decision, especially, because the MJL was created by the student body at Plenary. Ari noted that he thought that the current definition should stand because it allows everyone to determine their own “multicultural-ness”. Ethan pointed out that according to Jeff’s very own statistics, 3 out of every 10 juries will have less than 3 multicultural jurors without the current MJL system.

Jenn said that this was a conversation that was useful to Council, but needed to be brought to the general community. Caitlin added that since the original intention of the multicultural juror list was to maintain an adequate representation of students of color on all trials, only the student body could change the purpose of the list. Hannah and Jeff agreed to work together to organize a student discussion on the issue of the MJL.

III. Point-people - As stated in last weeks minutes, all HC committees will now have point-people who will act as a community resource/informal chair to the committees. If you have any questions about a committees work (or lack thereof) or want to join a committee, please contact the following contact people: Student Outreach: Hannah; Faculty Relations: Ethan; Admissions: Celeste; SFP: Lucy; Council Breaking the Code: Ari; Mock Trial: Ben; and Customs/HCO: Amelia.

IV. Student Outreach - Trying to combat the fact that some people find Honor Council kindof scary (especially when we pull out the cattle-prods at trials), Hannah talked about the Student Outreach Committee’s plan to assign an Honor Council member to every Customs group, both as a resource and to put a human face on Council. Ethan had concerns that this might impede on the role of HCOs. Amelia, Elizabeth and Tyson all suggested that the Council member might be a helpful resource for the HCO, and Ben proposed that the program be modeled on a similar program two years ago, where HCOs could determine the involvement of their HC liaison. Celeste added that Council members could act as a conduit to bring Frosh concerns to Council. Ari warned HC members not to act like all-knowing Honor Code types, like we way too often do, but simply as resources. Council then agreed to Hannah’s program, with Ben’s modifications.

V. Foreign Relations Committee - Since pilgrims come from far and wide to bow down and admire the perfection of Haverford’s Honor Code system (do you detect a note of sarcasm . . . .), the Foreign Relations Committee has been set up to deal with all Code inquiries from outside the Haverbubble, plus will renegotiate trade status with Libya. Members: Ethan, Jenn, Lucy, Ari, and Hannah.

VI. Week on Academic Integrity - UPenn has organized a “Week on Academic Integrity” and asked Honor Council to send a contingent to a conference on October 24th. Interest was expressed by a number of members.

VII. Web Page Access - Ethan noted the fact that online abstracts can only be accessed from Haverford, and thus can’t be read by those studying abroad or by virtually anyone in the summer. He suggested that an e-mail password system, akin to the online transcript system, allow access. After Council made vicious fun of Ethan for reading abstracts in the summer, Gayathri volunteered to look into it.

VIII. HC Retreat - Dean Sunni Green Tolbert has agreed to help HC with its diversity training at its retreat which will be on October 7th-8th. Ben noted that rooms had been reserved and the champagne and shrimp were being chilled.

IX. PLENARY - That’s right kids, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, come one, come all, doors open at 7:15 PM. Among other topics, the Alcohol Policy is up for ratification this year. So be there, yo. Plenary resolution discussions on Monday and Thursday night at 10:00 PM in Campus Center 205B.

X. Dinner with Dean Tolliver - Honor Council will be having dinner with Dean Tolliver on October 12th, so if you have any concerns, bring them to your friendly HC rep. before then.

XI. Confidential Portion, Moment of Silence

HC Minutes today were brought to you by the Archer-Daniels Midland Company, large corporate behemoth, and the letter “C”, but not necessarily Haverford College or its Administration. I only have a little room here, so I’ll be brief. I was running on the nature trail early this morning, and this little green elf told me the secret of life was that