ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 28, 1997 TAG: 9701280052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: Associated Press
The University of Virginia's 155-year-old honor system is facing new problems as the school expands its continuing education program for adults at branch campuses.
The honor system, created in 1842, requires students to sign a pledge not to lie, cheat or steal. Expulsion is automatic for students convicted by a student jury of violating the oath.
About 18,000 adult students take courses at seven regional satellite campuses statewide, about the same number of students enrolled at the main campus in Charlottesville.
Another 11,000 continuing education students sign up for noncredit courses across the state, such as those required for professional recertification in a variety of fields.
Most continuing education students are required to sign oaths when they have exams that are not monitored by an instructor.
In theory, all are bound by the honor system, but the distance from the main campus and the growing use of the Internet and satellite technology has created problems.
``The issue has really become the application of the honor system at locations where continuing education is offered outside of Charlottesville,'' said John Redick, a continuing education professor who is helping to study the question. ``As our activity in continuing education increases across the state, we anticipate that the (enforcement) problem may multiply.''
One concern is that students charged with honor offenses now must travel to Charlottesville to defend themselves. Another is that continuing education students have no representative on the student Honor Committee or trial juries that decide their guilt or innocence.
``Is it a trial by your peers when you are a 50-year-old business person and your jurors are 20-year-old college students?'' said Sondra F. Stallard, head of the division.
Officials began looking into the honor system's role in continuing education a couple of years ago after several students in the program were charged and had difficulty with the logistics of defending themselves, Redick said.
He said he knows of about five honor cases involving continuing education students during the last several years. None resulted in expulsion.
At a meeting last week, Redick and Stallard presented student Honor Committee leaders with several alternatives: keeping the status quo, creating an honor system specifically for continuing education students, or exempting those students entirely from the system.
The last option was the least popular.
``Everyone is pretty much agreed that the honor system should continue at continuing ed,'' said Nathan Vitan, a 23-year-old graduate student from Fairfax Station who sits on the Honor Committee.
The committee will study the issue.
``It's kind of part of UVa's legacy,'' said Carol Beechler, associate director for continuing education in northern Virginia where the university and Virginia Tech opened a new $16 million joint facility last month.
``The adult student who enrolls in the university likes everything that goes with the university,'' she said. ``Many of them choose the university because of its history and its traditions, including its honor system.''
She said continuing education needs ``something similar but different'' from the campus honor system. ``We need to have a group of adult students who have their own committee or something comparable,'' she said.
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