Just a heads up to all current and perspective Sewanee parents. The school touts their honor code as this very special part of the school. However, please be very aware that there is nothing special or honorable about this code. It is 100% student driven, with seemingly little input or oversight from faculty or staff. Students can be, and very frequently are, accused of many infractions that have very serious and overzealous penalties. Your child is basically in this process alone. I urge any parent who’s child gets called before the council for ANY infraction to travel to the school and be there during the trial. Parents are NOT allowed to be present during the proceedings, but you may request to hear the recording of a trail afterwards. The things that go on in these trials may be terrifying for your child’s future. My impression dealing with this is that Sewanee’s own faculty doesn’t even support this function of Sewanee. One professor even gave one student a card from an attorney and urged them to contact them. Sewanee has a lot of great things about it, but don’t be naive and think this can never happen to your child and that the process that follows is indeed fair and honorable. You are considered guilty until proven innocent.
This is kind of useless without details.
Not useless and you don’t need the details. The OP is simply telling you to be aware that the honor code system is student driven and the discipline board/hearing is also student driven. Be sure to consider the full ramificatuons of that when thinking about Sewanee. While I was aware if the honor code at Sewanee I had no idea it was entirely student driven on the disciplinary side, thanks OP.
My DS C’16, had the unfortunate experience of having to go through this process the first few weeks of his freshman year. It’s what happens when you don’t read the school regulations properly. Anyway, it was pretty scary but he did the right thing by finding a professor/mentor who advised him through the process, went through with the right attitude. He did receive punishment of having to do a semester’s worth of community service. He came out better for the experience and the professor remained his mentor for the four years and is now considered a good friend of his. I did not get involved at all. Maybe I’d have been more concerned had a had similar warning as the OP’s post. Ignorance was bliss in my case, I guess.
Not at Sewanee, but my kid got called before her school’s student honor board two weeks before graduation. It freaked me out – she was (I thought) way too chill about it. I didn’t go there,but did make her go over the details with me and discuss what she should or shouldn’t say very carefully, The charge was dismissed, thankfully. But it isn’t uncommon for kids to not take it very seriously when they should.
Also from DS’s experience during the ‘trial’, although it was student driven it was overseen by faculty.
Rereading OP’s post, I think it may be a bit of an over exaggeration to say that it’s totally student driven. I cannot imagine that there would not be faculty advisers who would be overseeing any kind of process that affects a students future, academic or otherwise.
Also from DS’s experience during the ‘trial’, although it was student driven it was overseen by faculty. Admittedly I did get the impression that the students were a bit overzealous during the hearing.
Also from DS’s experience during the ‘trial’, although it was student driven it was overseen by faculty. Admittedly I did get the impression that the students were a bit overzealous during the hearing.
The honor code is clearly spelled out on the college’s website. It is not a trial that occurs, it is a hearing. A student may appoint a fellow student, faculty member or staff member to assist them at the hearing. A student may have 5 guests at the hearing. The decision can be appealed to the Vice-Chancellor. For those not wanting to read all the details, there is a helpful FAQ section.
Like many student-run initiatives, the outcomes are only as good as the training and oversight that the college is willing to put into it. IMO, the value of placing the the responsibility of the honor code with the students outweighs the possible detriments. The honor code at Sewanee is no more or less strict than that of many other similar LACs. D is in her third year at Sewanee and has had no issues with it.