By Alex Zhai
Gargoyle assistant editor
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006, The OG, news

Voting that took place during the week of Oct. 3-6 showed overwhelming approval for a student-run honor council at Uni. Non-seniors voted in favor of a council 149-83, with only the freshman class lacking a majority.

The Student-Faculty Advisory Committee, which sponsored the vote in order to gauge student opinion, will now develop a working model to present to the school for further consideration.

According to senior SFAC officer Michael Belmont, even though 20 non-seniors abstained from voting, SFAC's decision to draft an honor council would not have been affected if they had all voted against it.

Seniors voted 28-8 for the honor council, but their votes were not taken into as much consideration, since they will have graduated before any honor council takes effect.

Despite the support for exploring the possibilities, some students are still concerned that bias could corrupt an honor council.

“You have to question the honesty of the students, but if you can rely on the students in the honor council, it's a great idea,” says junior Joe Leigh.

In an e-mail, junior SFAC officer Eunice How addressed some of these concerns by raising the possibility of keeping honor council members anonymous. Although the honor council idea was initially prompted by cheating, it could also be applied to other infractions.

After SFAC completes its honor council model, the proposal will have to be ratified by the faculty and Student Council before taking effect.

For our previous coverage of this issue, click here.