StateWide
Compiled by Lynn Burke
UVA’s Honor System Comes Under Scrutiny
Criticism of the University of Virginia’s Honor System
prompted the formation of a commission to look into the complaints and make
suggestions for improvement. The Honor System Review Commission, comprising
students, alumni, faculty, and administrators, released its final report last
November. Among the issues addressed in the report are perceptions of racial
bias, expulsion as the only sanction available, and problems with the trial
process, which the commission believes has become too much like a criminal,
rather than an administrative, process.
To address the concern that a disproportionate number of
minority students are accused of honor violations, the commission recommended
that regular diversity training be initiated for all Honor Committee members
and support officers, and that the Honor Committee work closely with the
administration to increase minority student participation and recruit minority
students to be support officers and candidates for membership on the committee.
Other recommendations included streamlining the process and toning down the
adversarial nature of the proceedings and making accused students primarily
responsible for their own defense.
James Madison, Mason Study Abroad Programs Rank Highly
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, James
Madison University ranks second among master’s degree institutions in the
number of students participating in study abroad programs. The rankings, which
were released last fall, list the top 20 colleges and universities categorized
among research, doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s institutions for
the 1998–99 academic year. James Madison sent 568 students abroad to
study during that time. In the same category, the University of Richmond ranked
19th.
Of the top 20 doctoral institutions, George Mason University
was ranked third with 671 students studying abroad, and William and Mary was
ranked 17th with 352 students.
ODU Students Ask for Activities Fees Increase
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported in December that
student leaders at Old Dominion University (ODU) will ask the school’s
Board of Visitors to approve an activities fee increase. According to the
article, ODU’s allotment per student for activities is among the lowest
of Virginia’s public four-year universities. The proposed $1-per-credit-hour
increase would nearly triple the funds available for student activities.
William and Mary BOV Reaffirms Out-of-State Student Ratio
The Board of Visitors (BOV) of the College of William and
Mary in November reaffirmed its commitment to a 65:35 ratio of in-state to out-of-state
students, reports W&M News, the college’s newspaper. According to
college president Timothy Sullivan, the school’s admission profile has
demonstrated that the policy “has been one of the higher education
policies that has remained constant.” The article also reports Sullivan
as stating that out-of-state tuition in part subsidizes in-state tuition and
lowering the ratio of out-of-state students would end up costing the commonwealth
more money. Legislation in the Virginia General Assembly that would have capped
out-of-state enrollment at 33 percent had been defeated a day before the
William and Mary BOV adopted the resolution.
