Author: Soo Jin Kim
On Oct. 27-30, Honor Week was held by Honor Board to promote the purpose of the Honor Board. Honor Board is a branch of the Associated Students of Occidental College (ASOC) that deals mainly with the jurisdiction of the school and students.
There are 10 jurors in the Honor Board, including Honor Board chair Danielle Siegler (sophomore), Debbie Afar (junior), Philipos Arsenis (senior), Lee Budner (junior), Noah Goldsmith (junior), Rourke Harrington (senior), Shannon Hurley (junior), Nick Lee, (junior) Jillian Mendoza (sophomore) and Danny Rucker (junior).
Though there are 10 sitting jurors, one of whom is studying abroad, Honor Board only needs seven people to effectively hold a meeting.
Honor Board holds meetings once a week, and also holds an additional meeting for its own committee in the Board. Siegler said that all the members hold the same responsibilities, except for the Chair. “The Chair essentially serves as a liaison as to the student body and helps to clear up any concerns,” Siegler said.
Events like ‘The Great Debate,’ ‘Honor Week: Snitches get Stitches,’ ‘Cookies and Conversation,’ ‘Honor Hour,’ ‘Screen on the Green,’ and a Cooler display of the history of Honor Board at Oxy were held during Honor Week. Goldsmith said that everyone who was involved with Honor Week was excited and very much involved in it.
The planning for Honor Week began around two months ago, according to Goldsmith. The purpose of the events was “to facilitate discussion amongst peers and even professors, on topics related to honor and engagement at Oxy,” said Siegler.
“Very few people know what we do, [and we want to] help people understand who we are and how they can utilize us to file a dispute, dissolve a dispute. We’re one avenue they can take,” Goldsmith said.
The Cooler exhibit was a presentation of Honor Board and served to welcome Honor Week. ‘Cookies and Conversation’ was a circled discussion. ‘Snitches get Stitches’ was a discussion “regarding the challenge of maintaining academic and personal integrity when an acquaintance, or even a friend, participates in an activity that can be seen as jeopardizing their credibility,” Siegler said.
The participants of this event discussed several hypothetical situations, such as copying notes or homework, stealing from the Marketplace, or cheating on an exam or paper. Talk also centered around the pressure that arises to not say anything about friends or peers who do such things. ‘The Great Debate’ was a discussion concerning “the nature of engagement and student participation at Oxy,” Siegler said.
A concern that was brought up during the Great Debate was about a document the ASOC used entitled “A Community of Difference.” The discussion about the concern was about the ‘community of difference’ that is stated in the document and how “how people go around, dealing with issues, how you engage in discussion about issues that may be controversial,” Goldsmith said.
Honor Hour was an event open to all professors, administrators and Honor Board members. It was a chance for “Honor Board members/jurors to talk to teachers and administrators about the Academic Judicial Panel,” Goldsmith said.
The Academic Judicial Panel is currently made up of a couple of professors and administrators and two randomly selected students. The Academic Judicial Panel is responsible for overseeing cases of academic misconduct filed against a student. During this meeting, Honor Board jurors made the suggestion that it would be more beneficial if, instead of having randomly selected students for the panel, two Honor Board jurors would take their place to serve on the Panel. Honor Hour was “a way to help convince teachers and administrators that Honor Board members should be on board of the [Academic Judicial] Panel,” Goldsmith said. The Honor Board deals mainly with student conflicts (e.g. race, culture, etc) whilst the Academic Judicial Panel deals with academic misconduct.
“We would want to try and explore and challenge [each other] to consider every single fact,” Goldsmith said. “Since we were elected to do this kind of job, we take time to do it. It’s kind of our duty to be advocates for the student.”
“Screen on the Green” was a screening of the movie A Few Good Men, on the lawn in front of the Cooler. The Honor Board members decided to “show a movie posing a moral dilemma,” Siegler said.
“The whole week felt pretty good. My goals and expectations was were to promote awareness amongst students,” Goldsmith said, adding, “I was slightly disappointed with some of the turnout, but the people who went there were genuinely interested and came ready to have a discussion, not just listen.”
He also said that the quality of the discussion showed that the topics were things that people had been thinking about. “The Board members were really involved and truly engaged fellow students,” Siegler said, adding that, “some fantastic discussions developed as a result of Honor Week and we all had a really great time.”
Goldsmith said that the general response of the students towards Honor Week was of interest and curiosity, especially because “not a lot of people hear about Honor Board, and so people were receptive to hearing what we do, and interested in finding out what we do.” Siegler added that, “Honor Week has really increased the general population’s knowledge of the purpose the Board holds on campus.”
“I just hope that students utilize the Honor Board and that if students don’t have an understanding of what we do, or how we can help them, they’re more than welcome to go to any Honor Board and ask or e-mail us,” Goldsmith said.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
