
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994                   TAG: 9402270068
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIRSTEN WILLIAMS LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                                LENGTH: Medium

UVA'S STRICT HONOR CODE MAY CHANGE

University of Virginia students will decide this week whether to drop one of the school's oldest traditions - the "one-strike-and-you're-out" honor system.

Under the current system, known at UVa as the "single sanction," students found guilty by their peers of lying, cheating or stealing are automatically expelled. Only a handful of schools in the country have policies that are so strict.

In the new plan, to be voted on by students in a referendum Monday and Tuesday, student juries could decide to expel a guilty student - or suspend him for a year. Because the honor system is run by students, they have the final say on the matter.

The issue has divided the school in the last week, with both sides holding rallies and plastering the campus with posters.

"The single sanction is too harsh," said junior Kimberley Warden, a chief proponent of the change. "There needs to be another solution. Honor is too complex to simply say, `You're expelled,' and that's all. We need a middle ground."

Warden also said the system deters students from reporting peers because they don't want to expel them. "It's quite possible with a dual sanction, more cases will be initiated," she said.

In a poll of 400 students taken by the Student Honor Committee in 1991, 59 percent said they would report an incident under the system, while 74 percent said they would if there were penalties other than expulsion.

Under the system, 79 percent said they would vote to find a student guilty if they thought he had cheated. Ninety-three percent would under a more lenient plan.

But advocates of the single sanction say it sends a strong moral message and builds a "community of trust" on campus.

With a change, "you're saying for the first time in 152 years that it is no longer wrong to lie, cheat or steal," sophomore Robert Bunn said.

For the referendum to pass, it must get 60 percent support among voters, and at least 1,800 students must vote in favor of it.

"The issue comes down to empowering students," senior Carl Kugler said. "This is about what we the students want, and we want flexibility."

by CNB