COSC Not Sure on Class For Honor Violations

COSC met Tuesday afternoon to discuss the possible addition of the "XF" grade that, if implemented, would signify that a student received a failing grade as a result of academic misconduct of cheating or plagiarism.

Under a proposal crafted by a task force designed to suggest reforms to UNC's honor system, students would be able to remove the "X" from their failing grade if they chose to take a class on honor and integrity.

The "XF" proposal is just one of many proposals the task force set before COSC this semester as COSC works on formulating recommendations for overhauling the honor system. COSC members' goal is to submit recommendations to the chancellor by December and to Student Congress in early 2003.

The committee reached an agreement Tuesday that there should be a passive and an active sanction to lift the "X" from students' transcripts, said Jonathan Slain, a student member of COSC.

Under this plan, students would be placed on probation until they took action to remove the "X," Slain said Wednesday.

Active sanctions would include students performing community service or attending an ethics course. There were also ideas of taking a supplemental course in the class that the student cheated in or rewriting the paper that was plagiarized.

Toward the end of the meeting, members also suggested that students who violated the Honor Code on more than one occasion would be unable to lift the "X" from their transcripts, Slain said.

But some committee members contended that the "XF" grade could be an invasion of students' privacy, saying a course devised to lift the mark would unfairly single out students, said COSC Chairwoman Judith Wegner. "It raises questions on the issue that students' privacy would be adversely affected," she said.

She said implementing a new policy would appear to do more harm than good to students who only violated the Honor Code on one occasion. "The existing system is more effective."

The class that students would be required to take would prove unfruitful because it would be a form of punishment or obligation and counterproductive to faculty and students, she said.

Aside from discussing revisions to the honor system, COSC members also stressed the need to explain the existing system to the campus community.

Stephen Weiss, a faculty representative on COSC, said educating faculty and students is important. "The problem with the Honor Code is that too many people don't understand it," he said.

The group proposed an "informal process of discussion" in which those accused of violating the Honor Code would hold a voluntary meeting with faculty and a third party, most likely an Honor Court member.

"The faculty member and the student are allowed to meet before anything official happens," Weiss said.

The meetings would help prevent future misconduct on the accused student's part, he said.

Committee members also discussed the possibility of an expedited hearing in which students would be seen before a partial Honor Court panel for a speedy hearing. The process would entail that the accused students plead guilty to the Honor Court violation, and it would allow sanctions for the particular actions to be given out more quickly without the hassle of a full hearing.

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.