The following guidelines outline in what situations and in what manner the jury of an Honor Council proceeding will be informed about a presently confronted party’s past violation of the Honor Code, if it exists. Cases where a past violation is related to a current violation may be indicative that the breach of trust was not successfully repaired, and it is important for the jury to be able to consider this when designing resolutions in a current trial. Understanding both past and current violations, if they are related, is necessary for full restoration to occur.
When Honor Council consents to send a new case to a formal proceeding (i.e. not mediation), the Honor Council Librarian will check the records of past cases available to him/her to determine whether the presently confronted student has been the confronted party in a past Honor Council proceeding that came to a statement of violation. The Honor Council Librarian will also give the student’s name to the Dean of the College, who can check records the Librarian may not have access to.
In the case that the student was the confronted party in a case where the Honor Code was found to have been violated, the Honor Council Librarian will contact the student to say that he/she is aware that the student was the confronted party in a past violation to give the student a heads-up about scheduling an additional meeting. The Librarian will convey that if (and only if) the jury comes to a statement of violation following the fact-finding portion of the current proceeding, the non-involved Honor Council Co-Chair* (the one not chairing the proceeding) will be informed and will schedule a meeting with the student to talk about whether the past violation is related to the present one. The Librarian will contact the student ahead of time so the student can suggest times when he/she would be able to meet with the non-involved (NI) Co-Chair, so as not to delay the trial process more than is necessary.
If the jury consents to a statement of violation in the current proceeding, the Librarian will tell the NI Honor Council Co-Chair that the student in the current proceeding was the confronted party in a proceeding for a past Honor Code violation, and the NI Co-Chair should schedule a meeting with the student to talk about the past violation. The goal of this meeting is for the confronted student and the Co-Chair to determine whether the past violation is related to the current proceeding, which they will do by comparing the statements of violation from the past and current proceedings. If both parties agree that the past violation is relevant, the confronted party and NI Co-Chair should come to agreement on how this information should be presented to the jury of the current proceeding and how much information will be shared.
The two parties should do their best to reach agreement through constructive dialogue. If agreement cannot be reached, but the NI Co-Chair believes strongly that the past and present violations are related and that the current jury needs to be made aware of it, the NI Co-Chair may determine that it is his/her responsibility as an Honor Council Co-Chair to make the jury aware of the past violation despite the wishes of the confronted party. In this case, the NI Co-Chair must consult with the Librarian to make sure that he/she is indeed acting in a way consistent with his/her responsibilities as Co-Chair, as one aspect of the Honor Council Librarian’s job is to “monitor the activities of Honor Council to ensure that it maintains its integrity, and will generally act as a check on its activities” (Description of the Librarian’s Responsibilities). The NI Honor Council Co-Chair will express to the confronted party that she/he believes that the past statement of violation is relevant to the current statement of violation and needs to be shared with the jury so that full restoration may occur, but that she/he will check the appropriateness of this decision with the Honor Council Librarian before any information is shared with the current jury. The NI Co-Chair will talk to the confronted party about any preferences for how the information is shared with the jury in the case that the Librarian decides it is consistent with the Co-Chair’s responsibilities to share the information. The Librarian will be similarly consulted if the parties agree that information should be shared but disagree on the amount of information to be shared.
When the NI Co-Chair talks with the Librarian, the Co-Chair will summarize the discussion with the confronted party and why the Co-Chair feels that the information is relevant to the jury. The confronted party will also be invited to contact the Librarian to explain their concerns, if they wish. Based on this information, the Librarian will decide whether the NI Co-Chair’s decision to make the current jury aware of the past trial despite the confronted party’s preference is consistent with his/her duty as Honor Council Co-Chair. If the Librarian feels that the Co-Chair’s decision to make the jury aware of the past violation is inappropriate, the information will not be shared with the chair of the proceeding and jury. If the Librarian agrees that the decision is consistent with the Co-Chair’s responsibilities, the NI Co-Chair will fill in the chair of the proceeding (normally the other Honor Council Co-Chair), on the relevant details of the past violation. This information will be shared with the current jury during the circumstantial portion by either the chair of the proceeding or the confronted party him/herself in the manner deemed appropriate by the NI Co-Chair and confronted party in their discussion.
This information will be shared during the circumstantial portion after an independent statement of violation has been reached, which means that the knowledge of a past proceeding will not influence the jury’s decision to come to a statement of violation or non-violation. The confronted party will have the chance to respond to this information in the presence of the jury during the circumstantial portion.
* Or other experienced member of Honor Council, in the event that Honor Council has a single Chair or the NI Co-Chair is otherwise unavailable.