Harvey Mudd College has had an Honor Code since the first academic
year, although in the early years it was referred to as "The Honor
System." In January of 1958, a provisional Honor Code was submitted
so that a system would be in place before term exams, "because of the
Council's belief that an adequate document could not be prepared in
time." (ASHMC Minutes, Jan 28, 1958) The earliest completed
version of the Honor System in the archive is in a ballot distributed
to the students of Harvey Mudd College on June 3, 1958.
Interestingly, there is no explicit mention made that the faculty had
to approve the Honor System at this time. However, the top of the
cover letter states, "Here is our Constitution as revised in
student meetings and proof-read by Drs. Jordan, Campbell, and
Davenport."
The Honor Code has always been an important part of the ASHMC
Constitution. Although there is no mention of this in the
Constitution itself, the cover letter states that
The Honor System (Articles V and VI) must be voted on
separately because it requires a 3/4 majority for adoption
while the remainder of the Constitution may be adopted by
a 2/3 majority vote.
It is also interesting to note that the election procedure followed in
1958 differs significantly from the election procedures we now
follow. In this election, students had until the next day, June 4, to
complete the ballot and drop it in the ballot box in the mail room.
In current elections, members of ASHMC Council sit in the back of
Platt Campus Center collecting ballots at meals.
The initial version of The Honor System differs enough from the
current version of the Honor Code that I shall include it here.
Unfortunately, the ballot included in the files has no mention of
whether or not the Constitution or the Honor System were adopted.
ARTICLE V
THE HONOR SYSTEM
Section 1. The Honor System shall be the fundamental principle
of conduct for members of the ASHMC. It shall apply to all
academic matters and to the safety of private property on campus.
Section 2. Any member of the Student Body or the faculty observing
a violation of the Honor System shall report the violation to a
member of the Student Court or shall talk with the offender
regarding the violation. If the second alternative is followed,
a report shall be submitted to the Student Court withholding the
name of the offender and stating the offense and subsequent action.
ARTICLE VI
THE STUDENT COURT
Section 1. The Student Court shall consist of eight members:
the ASHMC Vice-President, a Court Recorder, and six elected
members - two representatives from each of the junior and senior
classes and one representative from each of the freshman and
sophomore classes. Until the academic year 1960-1961 there shall
be only four elected court members. During 1958-1959 there shall
be two representatives from each of the Freshman and Sophomore
classes. During the year 1959-60 there shall be two Junior class
representatives and one representative from each of the Freshman
and Sophomore classes.
Section 2. Duties of the members:
- The ASHMC Vice-President shall act as a non-voting
chairman. He shall investigate charges and present his
findings to the Student Court.
- The Court Recorder shall be a non-voting member and shall
record all proceedings. He shall be appointed by the
chairman with the approval of the court.
- The class representatives shall have sole voting power
when considering cases.
Section 3. The Student Court shall:
- Judge all violations of the Honor System.
- Act as court of appeals on all matters referred to it by
the Dormitory Council.
- Instruct the Student Body and Administration in the values
and operation of the Honor System.
Section 4. All members must be present for any official action
and unanimous agreement of the voting members shall be required
for conviction. Penalties, subject to the approval of the Dean
of Student Counseling, may be set by a majority vote of the court
members. All court proceedings concerning Honor System violations
shall be kept secret.
1958: How is it different from today?
The operating procedures of this original "Student Court" and the
current student judicial system vary considerably, in at least the
following ways:
- The Honor Code has become more clearly defined, and the student
judicial system now addresses more broad concerns,
- The procedure for reporting violations has been modified,
- The members of the board are significantly different (we don't
even have an ASHMC Vice-President any more...),
- Two new boards have been created: the Appeals Board and the
Disciplinary Board,
- Guidelines for hearings have been outlined in the Standards of
Student Conduct (found in the Student Handbook)
- Conviction now only requires a 3/4 majority rather than a
unanimous agreement of the voting members.
Changes to the judicial system continue as this document is being
prepared. The current ASHMC Council is debating amendments to the
Constitution that will include a clause that makes trials open by
default rather than closed and secret.
1959: Amendments to the Honor System
The first amendments to the Honor System was proposed on Mar 12,
1959 (ASHMC Minutes, Mar 12, 1959). It is interesting to note
that ratification of these amendments only required a 2/3 majority,
not the 3/4 necessary for the Honor System to be approved in the first
place.
The two proposed changes to the Honor System include the following:
Article VI, Section 3:
Add- (d) have jurisdiction in cases of student misconduct
brought to the attention of the chairman by members of the
Student Court, faculty, or administration. This jurisdiction
shall be limited to intercollegiate relations, college
sponsored functions, and incidents on the Associated Colleges
campus.
Article VI. (add) Section 5:
By a joint decision, the ASHMC President and the chairman
of the Student Court shall have the authority to immediately
suspend any student in a case of gross misconduct. Any
such suspension will be subject to review by the Student
Court and the Dean of Student Counseling at the earliest
possible date.
The ballot from the ASHMC Archives actually has some of the yes and no
boxes checked off, most likely indicating which amendments were passed.
The first amendment is marked "yes." This particular amendment
restricts the jurisdiction of the Student Court system to incidents
relating somehow to the college.
The next amendment is marked "no." This is probably a good thing;
it would have allowed a pair of students to have authority over
suspending other students. Presumably, if such gross conduct ever did
occur, the Dean of Students office would suspend the student
immediately anyways and thus bear the burden of responsibility.
1960
In 1960, the ASHMC Secretary submitted a report on the
amendments that had been passed during Fall semester, 1959-60. Of
the three amendments, two of them deal with the Student Court.
Article VI, Section IV.
If charges are brought against any member of the Student Court,
he shall be suspended from the Student Court for the duration of his
trial.
Article VI, Section IV.
During a hearing the accused shall have access to a record of
all testimony given with all names withheld.
These amendments reflect what current practice is today. There are
now more complete rules detailing when a member of the Honor Board can
be disqualified for a case, but any member brought to trial will not
be allowed to sit on the case. Additionally, current practice
requires that the defendant receive a packet detailing all of the
evidence uncovered during the investigative phase of an Honor Code
trial.
Later, in the fall of 1960, ASHMC Council formed a committee to
investigate the workings of the Student Court (ASHMC Minutes,
Nov 21, 1960). This committee evidently gave rise to some amendments
of the Honor System; unfortunately, none of them are evident in the
archive.
It appears that some time in 1961, a new article was appended to the
Constitution detailing the duties of the officers. This article was
moved earlier in the Constitution, thus renumbering the articles
dealing with the Judicial System. This, in addition to the amendments
passed by the 1960 committee, mean that the Constitution had changed
substantially during this time.
The amendment of Thursday, November 1, 1962, reads as follows:
Replace ARTICLE VII, Section I, with:
Section I. The Judiciary Board shall consist of eight members:
the ASHMC Vice-President, a recording secretary, and six elected
members. The six elected members shall be elected and take office
at the same time as the ASHMC officers. Two shall be from the
Freshman Class, two from the Sophomore Class, and two from the
Junior Class. These six elected members shall serve for one year.
ARTICLE VII, Section 5. Add after first sentence:
The class officers shall replace the members of the Judiciary Board
when the members of the Judiciary Board are unable to attend, in
the following order: President, Secretary-Treasurer, Social Chairman.
Failure for any member of the Court to attend Court meetings without
a valid excuse shall be considered contempt of court. It is up to
the Court to decide whether the excuse is valid.
This amendment passed with a vote of 149 for, 42 against. This is the
first mention seen in the archive of the "Judiciary Board," the term
that is still in common usage today.
The second clause of this amendment is interesting. Unlike just about
any other version of the Honor Code, there is a clear delineation of
who becomes a member of the Judiciary Board when a member is
disqualified for some reason.
1964: The two court system
The next year that we see a complete Constitution in the Archive is
1964. (In March 11, 1963, the ASHMC minutes mention a petition
filed by a number of students calling for a new constitution. It
appears that the ASHMC Council sat on it for a year, and the next
year's Council re-wrote the constitution during Spring Semester of
1964, and got it approved by the student body in the Fall of 1964.)
In this document, we can see that the Honor Code has been developed
more fully:
Sec. 1. The Honor Code
A. Each member of ASHMC shall be responsible for his integrity
in all matters related to academics and personal property.
The personal property clause affects only personal property
on campus or that involved in a school sponsored function.
In addition to the Constitution in the archive is a list of proposed
changes to the Constitution, which adds the personal property clause,
gives each member of the board except the chair one vote, and outlines
rules for when a board member is unable to attend a meeting.
This is also the first time that we see a system of two courts. At
this point, there was a Judiciary Board and a Student Court. Section
2C states that the Judiciary Board Chairman, Student Court Chairman,
and the Dean of Students decided the jurisdiction between the two
courts. It appears that the two-court system was first proposed in
1961, and passed a student referendum on May 1 of that
year (ASHMC Council Minutes, Mar 20, 1961).
Further, in sections 3 and 4, we see how the jurisdiction was to be
decided. The Judiciary Board judged:
- All Honor Code violations.
- All violations of College Regulations.
- Cases referred to it by Student Court.
- All reviews of Student Court decisions at the request
of a defendant.
- All cases of perjury before either court.
On the other hand, the Student Court was to:
- Judge all violations of ASHMC regulations.
- Judge all violations of dormitory regulations.
- Have the power to initiate action appropriate to the
maintenance of order in a dormitory.
It seems clear that the Judiciary Board was intended to hear the more
serious cases. The Judiciary Board also served as an appeals board
for the lower Student Court, which only heard cases relating to
student-created regulations. The minutes from ASHMC Council in 1961
refer to the Judiciary Board as being inundated with cases related to
dormitory fines. It is also interesting to note that while a
three-fifths vote was required for conviction in the Student Court,
unanimous vote was required for a conviction in the Judiciary Board.
The members of Judiciary Board were elected according to the same
kinds of rules as we have seen before (and are currently in practice):
two members from each class. On the other hand, the Student Court
members were dorm-elected positions. Article VI, section 2 also
allowed for the each dorm to be responsible for "enforcement of the
Dormitory Regulations and any other rules that it may establish."
1965: Faculty views of the Honor Code
On Novermber 11, 1965, the Student-Faculty Committee submitted a
proposed Constitutional amendment to ASHMC council. The proposal
included a restatement of the Honor Code, a section on the Honor
System that appears to be intended for the Student Handbook, and a
call for more explicit regulations regarding violations and
enforcement procedures.
It appears that this amendment did not pass; the new phrasing of the
Honor Code does not appear in later Constitutions. However, later
versions of the Constitution do have slightly different phrasings of
the Honor Code. The 1965 proposal states the Honor Code as follows:
Article V
sec 1. The Honor Code
A. Each member of ASHMC shall be required to maintain the highest
level of integrity in a manner befitting the high caliber of an
HMC student in all matters related to academics, personal
property and the academic facilities of the College.
The next part of the proposal, the part that appears analogous to what
is currently in the Student Handbook, explicitly states what violates
each of these three areas. The fact that this proposal comes from the
Student-Faculty Committee is not surprising; similar conversations
occur to this day between faculty and students. Some are unclear as
to exactly what constitutes an Honor Code violation; others are
unclear as to what kinds of punishments are assigned when violations
occur.
1969: The Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities
1969 is the first year for which we have a Statement of Student Rights
and Responsibilities. It was approved by the Board of Trustees on
September 23, 1969. This version doesn't mesh very well with the
Honor System as outlined in the Constitution, but in several places
mentions the "appropriate body"-which is, according to a marginal
note, the "J.B." This is also the first mention of the Appeal
Board, which is outlined better in the 1971 Constitution.
1971: The Appeals Board
There aren't any Constitutions between 1964 and 1971 in the ASHMC
Archive, so it's difficult to tell when the Appeals Board was
created. It is clear that a major rearrangement occurred sometime
before 1971, because the judicial system changed significantly during
that period.
The statement of the Honor Code didn't change since the 1964
Constitution, but the rest of the section outlining the Judicial
System was completely rewritten. There was still a two-court system
in effect, but the two courts are the Judiciary Board and the Appeal
Board. The jurisdiction of the older courts was consolidated, so the
Judiciary Board had jurisdiction over everything in the student
judicial system. The Appeal Board was to "concern itself
solely with possible procedural errors in the Judiciary Board's
handling of the appealed case." At this time, the Appeal Board
needed a unanimous vote to find the defendant guilty or revise
penalties, but could find the defendant not guilty or refer the matter
back to the Judiciary Board with a majority vote.
This version of the Constitution also refers to the Statement on
Student Rights and Responsibilities, saying that it "shall be
used to establish procedures beyond those listed here." This is the
first reference to an external document for disciplinary procedure;
this practice has continued to the present day.
1972
There are very few differences between the Constitution in 1971 and
1972. The only difference in the section on the Judicial System was
that in 1971, the Judiciary Board needed a majority vote to find a
student not guilty and a unanimous vote to find a student guilty. In
1972, the clause requiring a majority vote to find the defendant not
guilty was stricken.
1977: Clarifications
In the late 1970's it appears that the judicial system stabilized for
a few years. The changes made during this period of time seem to be
relatively minor, and intended to clarify rather than change the
practice of the court.
The statement of the Honor Code in the 1977 Constitution changed
slightly from that in 1972. The second sentence was rephrased so that
instead of talking about the "personal property clause," it stated
that the Honor Code applied "only to property on campus or
involved in a function sponsored by ASHMC or the colleges."
In addition, the process for electing the Judiciary Board members and
chair were clarified, even though the method of selection didn't
change. The Judiciary Board was also explicitly given the power to
levy fines in property cases and the power to levy academic penalties
in academic cases. Throughout, references to the "Appeal Board"
were changed to the "Appeals Board."
From 1977 through 1983, there were no changes made to the Student
Judicial System.
However, in the spring of 1982, a case in which students set off
acetylene bombs set off a series of events which led to ASHMC
rethinking the Judicial System. In the aftermath of this, discussions
were held that led to the creation of the Disciplinary Board in 1984.
These events will be outlined in a later section of this report.
At this time, the section of the Constitution dealing with the
specifics of the Judicial System was replaced by a section outlining
the duties of the Judicial Board Chair and the Disciplinary Board
Chair. The JB chair was to arrange with the faculty to meet and
discuss the Honor Code and the judicial system, and present to the
entire faculty the community's views every year. The JB and DB chairs
were to give a presentation to the incoming freshmen during
Orientation. The rest of the JB chair's duties were outlined in the
"Honor System," while the DB chair's duties were outlined in the
"Judicial System." These titles refer to sections in the Statement
of Student Rights and Responsibilities in the student handbook. This
phrasing continues to be used in the current version of the ASHMC
Constitution.
The changes were approved in an ASHMC election in the spring of 1984,
and approved by the faculty in the fall of 1984.
1987-1996
The ASHMC Archive currently has no Constitutions more recent than the
1987 printout. Between 1987 and 1996 (the next copy of the
Constitution I had available to me, from the 1996-1997 Student
Handbook), there were few amendments to the section of the
Constitution outlining the Student Judicial System. A new section was
added describing the Disciplinary Code. This section parallels the
section describing the Honor Code, and tells where to report
violations of the Disciplinary Code.
1990: Further clarifications
At this point, any further changes to the Judicial System were changes
to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Since the
ASHMC Archive currently does not have copies of all of the old
handbooks (where the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities
is published), it is difficult to determine if we have a complete
discussion of the evolution of the judicial system during the past
decade and a half.
In 1990, ASHMC Council came up with a set of additions to the
Standards of Student Conduct outlined in the Student Handbook. At
this time, constitutional amendments were made to change the
composition of the Judiciary Board. The other changes being
considered in 1990 included a proposal to introduce two classes of
academic offenses (analogous to the difference between felonies and
misdemeanors in the US Justice System), and a proposal to introduce
minimum penalties for academic offenses.
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