GSA set to remain with Honor Council

By Lawanda Turner     11/12/09 6:00pm

Graduate students may go to Valhalla instead of Willy's Pub and attend Graduate Student Association meetings instead of Student Association meetings, but they have decided to continue to be judged by the same Honor Council as undergraduates.On Oct. 7, the Faculty Senate proposed that the GSA establish a separate Honor Council for graduate students. However, through a vote by the GSA officers following that recommendation, the GSA has determined it will not change the current process, GSA President Kristjan Stone said.

A separate Honor Council would be excessive, isolate members of the graduate community from the rest of the university and would require complicated implementation, Stone said. He said GSA officers considered that graduate students will have classes in their first year or two that overlap with undergraduate courses, and that the Honor Code process should be the same for students in those courses. Stone said graduate student research does not currently fall under the Honor Council's umbrella because students work independently on their projects.

He said it would also be challenging for the GSA to implement a separate Honor Council because of the difficulty getting enough people to fill all four GSA representative seats and one ombudsman seat on the current council.

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"This is the first time that all of the GSA representative seats have been filled on the Honor Council," Stone said. "It is very difficult to get people to take on the leadership roles because most graduate students won't be here very long. All we can do is advertise the positions and wait for volunteers."

Stone said it would take a significant amount of time for graduate students to create their own Honor Council.

He also said, however, that the GSA was interested in adding an Honor Council representative position for students in the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business. Since the Jones Student Association separated from the GSA in spring 2004, Stone said he has been concerned about students at the Jones School feeling isolated. He said that this separation may have been a result of the Jones School feeling disconnected from the rest of the graduate student body due to various background differences and a higher turnover rate of approximately two years. Stone said he hopes to continue interacting with Jones School students in the current process.

"It will make sense to incorporate Jones students and not isolate them," he said.

In striving to avoid isolating any graduate student, Honor Council Chair Lindsay Kirton said the current Honor Council system attempts to address differences between graduate students and undergraduates by providing a graduate-student ombudsman position.

"If a graduate student is being investigated, they will have someone to relate to," Kirton, a Wiess College junior, said.

Despite the Faculty Senate's recommendation, Kirton said she is not sure a separate Honor Council for graduate students is necessary.

"I want to see more evaluation," Kirton said. "There needs to be more input from students, and the new council would have to be efficient.

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