Adding transparency

Most students aren't familiar with the finer details of UNC's Honor Code until they find themselves coming face to face with them in Honor Court.

Members of the Honor System Outreach Committee are looking to change that with the third annual Honor and Integrity Week, which started Monday.

"We're trying to be proactive," said Candace Debnam, vice honor system outreach coordinator. "We're trying to get out into the community."

The outreach committee has planned several events for the week - including a mock hearing, a right-to-life debate and a professional ethics luncheon - to engage students in discussion about honor.

"We've tried to plan events that will reach a varied group of people," Shelly Schaaf, honor system outreach coordinator, said at the week's opening ceremony Monday in the Pit.

The committee will hold a mock hearing today at 5:30 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Student Union to show students the procedures of an Honor Court hearing.

"We're doing a mock hearing so that students know what goes on because it's usually closed door," Debnam said.

Student Body President Seth Dearmin, Student Attorney General Matt McDowell and Honor Court Chairman John Deans will aid in the mock trial by pretending to be charged with drug possession offenses.

Campus leaders said the hearing will help students understand the gravity of committing such an offense.

"I think students need to understand that if they get themselves in a situation where they aren't thinking, they'll have to put it on their grad school applications and certainly on their law school applications," said Judith Wegner, chairwoman of the faculty. "They need to really tune into the expectations of them."

The week will also feature a right-to-life roundtable discussion at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Toy Lounge of Dey Hall. Participants will debate the death penalty, abortion and the Terri Schiavo case.

The discussion will be moderated by Ryan Tuck, editor of The Daily Tar Heel.

The group also has collaborated with the School of Journalism and Mass Communication to bring Randy Cohen, The New York Times Magazine's "Ethicist," to campus.

Cohen will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Carroll 111 about honor and integrity.

"We're hoping that people will find something that sparks their interest this week," Schaaf said.

Wegner stressed that it's important for the students to know that there is more to the Honor Code than reprimanding cheating. It's also about celebrating integrity and ethics, she said.

"I think that it's good to have a reminder of the upside of honor."

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.