We are members of UNC’s student-led honor system. We are also HAVEN facilitators and allies. We stand with all survivors, and we stand with the honor system.
Our advocacy for survivors of interpersonal violence is not at odds with our roles within the honor system; rather, it is enhanced by our experiences within a system of student self-governance. Therefore, we have been actively involved in the transition of sexual assault cases out of the honor system and into the Student Grievance Committee.
We believe in the honor system. We believe that students should be setting and maintaining standards of honor and integrity. In our experience, we believe that the honor system is qualified to hear the cases you envision an honor system hearing — plagiarism, cheating, disorderly conduct, etc.
The honor system believes, and has believed for some time, that cases of sexual assault should be handled by another body.
When the Department of Education released in April 2011 a “Dear Colleague” Letter — which gave guidelines to universities for handling sexual assault — and it was determined that sexual assault cases needed to move to an entirely new entity at UNC, we both agreed with that decision. We felt that this was the right decision for the interests of all students, and that the change allowed cases of sexual assault to be heard in the most suitable way possible.
With the new policy on prohibited harassment and discrimination, which was released on Aug. 1, sexual assault is now under the jurisdiction of a body — the Student Grievance Committee — which dedicates all necessary hours to the specialized training for these cases. A new deputy Title IX coordinator is now a resource to students and will help students through this process of handling sexual misconduct.
However, the policy isn’t perfect. While it makes great steps forward, we feel that it is insufficient in some key areas. Since September, we have worked with the Office of the Chancellor and Gina Smith, an expert on sexual misconduct, to express our concerns about the policy. Among other things, we have explained the need for a list of confidential resources, crafted a more expansive definition of consent and defined rights of both accused students and complainants.
We believe that this is a unique moment in time for UNC. An opportunity has presented itself for our community to engage in critical, thoughtful and meaningful dialogue about how we want to ensure community standards. The new sexual assault policy and the Instrument of Student Judicial Governance must not only be utilized but also scrutinized so that our judicial processes can be improved upon. One example is critically discussing whether violations of no-contact orders should be heard by the Honor Court or the Student Grievance Committee.
We remain optimistic. The two topics we care most about — the honor system and ending interpersonal violence on campus — are generating more discussion than ever before. This is a time when we can recommit ourselves to two universal and complementary goals: preserving student self-governance and ensuring the right of every student to feel — and be — safe on campus.
