Editorial Q&A: Accountability to your peers

Opinion editor Maggie Zellner sat down with outgoing Deputy Student Attorney General John Harris to get his perspective on all things honor system, particularly faculty concerns.

Daily Tar Heel: Let’s say a professor feels wronged because the honor system found a student not guilty and the professor is sure the student is guilty. How does this compare to the harm that could be done if an innocent student were found guilty of a violation?

John Harris: The purpose of a justice system is not to ensure that all who are guilty are found guilty, but rather to ensure that none who are innocent are found guilty.

DTH: So what do these professors mean when they say they’ve been harmed by the honor system?

JH: Well, there’s an issue of the knowledge differential between the faculty and students. Let’s say a professor says you plagiarized and you say you didn’t, and the honor system sides with you. You can see where the faculty member is coming from if you view it as a faculty-student conflict.
But really, there’s a faculty member, a student and an independent third party that has been designated by the University to resolve the conflict — that’s the honor system.

DTH: So the honor system is considered an administrative body? Not just a bunch of kids?

JH: We’re officials of the University. And we’re bound by certain elements of that that other students aren’t.

DTH: But from a faculty perspective, it might feel like students are collaborating to let each other off easy?

JH: Exactly. So you can see where those faculty are coming from, especially if they’ve had a bad experience.

And let’s be honest, there are times when the court might not get it right. Justice is never perfect. But you have to acknowledge the institution and trust in the court members’ training to act as an independent body.

DTH: Would having faculty members sit on the Honor Court solve this problem?

JH: From a faculty perspective, it might make the court more credible. Some people even say the court should be made up entirely of administrators.

But the more you do that, the more you detract from the idea of students being held accountable to our peers. You lose the general student culture of honor that a student-run system helps engender.