Council’s Honor Destroyed With Evidence

The JMU Honor Code was written with the intent of policing students and establishing a systematic way to enforce rules regarding plagiarism, cheating and other academic violations. The Code includes provisions for the establishment of an Honor Council — a council charged with upholding the necessarily high standards set forth in the Code.

In dealing with the archives of tests allegedly dating from the 1951-’95 found in the sorority houses of Zeta Tau Alpha and Alpha Sigma Alpha, the Honor Council has failed in its duties and raises deep misgivings on its ability to fulfill them at all.

The Honor Council, after being informed of the existence of the archives, delayed and mishandled its investigation to an extent that allowed approximately half of the test documents to be destroyed.

The JMU Honor Code lists "obtaining prior knowledge of examination material (including by using copies of previously given examinations obtained from files maintained by various groups and organizations) in an unauthorized manner" as a violation of the honor code, as well as "selling or giving to another student unauthorized copies of an examination."

The stockpiles of tests discovered in the sorority houses are clearly in violation of both rules and initially the Honor Council did dutifully investigate, but it halted after determining, behind closed doors and after many files had been destroyed, that no individuals could be charged based on the lack of evidence.

Regardless of the veracity of such a ruling, the Honor Code does not preclude charging an organization. While such a charge likely would result in a complicated, drawn-out process, that is certainly no excuse for the Honor Council’s complacency in such a serious matter. The Honor Council implicitly admits that a violation occurred — it intends on working with Student Organization Services to release information to JMU students saying that possessing old copies of exams are in violation of the Honor Code.

This double standard of punishing individual students while allowing organizations to escape untouched should effectively destroy any faith students had in a fair honor system at JMU.

Moreover, the Honor Council’s delays and failure to confiscate the only evidence before it could be destroyed by a sorority advisor makes them complicit in 50 years of cheating and the resultant cover-up of all evidence of wrongdoing.

The Honor Council owes the JMU community an explanation for how such a blatant honor violation occurred and the breadth and scope of the effects — even if current student sorority members can not be charged, an investigation is necessary to determine how many diplomas were issued following years of fraudulent class work. The sororities should also be investigated by SOS to determine if the actions of their members warrants a revocation of charter.

No charges will be filed, though, by either the Honor Council or SOS, which likely will not collaborate with the national offices of the sororities. All guilty parties will remain unscathed.

The decision not to bring charges disgraces the Honor Code that JMU so highly prized and casts grave doubts on the nature of justice on our campus.