<p>On April 1st, the Brigade of Midshipmen in its entirety voted to pass or reject the revisions proposed by this year's honor staff and honor congress. After all 4,000+ votes were tallied, the Brigade approved the revisions with 81% voting "yes" for the changes, well above the "supermajority" of 66.7% mandated by the Commandant of Midshipmen.</p>
<p>Why is this information appearing in an online admissions forum? It is here because incoming candidates need to be informed that the administration of the honor concept has swung back into the hands of midshipmen, and contrary to what you might think, that doesn't mean it has become more lenient. After a series of institution-wide public events causing the Vice Chief of Naval Operations and the Superintendent to take action, they were forced to rely on the Brigade proposal that had been sent up months earlier, but had sat in limbo until crisis struck.</p>
<p>The reader's digest terms of the new honor revisions are as follows:</p>
<p>Staff Structure Change:</p>
<p>-Senior Staff- Brigade Honor Advisor, Brigade Honor Advisor for Investigations, Honor Development Officer, Brigade Remediation Advisor, 2 Regimental Honor Advisors
-Elimination of the Regimental Honor Staffs</p>
<p>Case Processing Changes:</p>
<p>-Cases will no longer go through each level of the chain of command, all cases will go to a Brigade Honor Board, or Formal Company Counseling Board (FCCB)
-Cases will typically take less than 20 days to complete (45 days under old instruction)
-The jury of the Brigade Honor Board votes to find guilty/not guilty AND warrants whether or not the case is worthy of separation</p>
<p>Remediation, Sanctions, and Separation:</p>
<p>-The finding of guilty at a Brigade Honor Board will prompt a vote from the jury to retain or separate that midshipman
-In cases where the jury votes to retain the midshipman, remediation and reprimand will be imposed to include all of the following for no less than 4 months:
*Honor Remediation with a Senior Officer (O4+)
*Reduction in rank and loss of class privileges
*Loss of weekend liberty eligibility
*Prohibition from representing USNA in athletics, movement orders, and removal of position of authority
*Any midshipman who commits a second offense after going through the prescribed reprimand described above will be separated from the Naval Academy as a remediation failure
*Remediation is an opportunity not afforded to all offenders, so it is to be embraced rather than seen as the status quo</p>
<p>Honor Congress:</p>
<p>*There will be 4 members from each class of each company (120 members) elected by their respective classmates who will serve as honor congress representatives. This body will meet periodically and have three major committees. The committees will be the investigations committee, the honor development committee, and the honor remediation committee. The Brigade Honor Advisor for Investigations, The Honor Development Advisor, and the Honor Remediation Officer will have to brief the honor congress of what their latest initiatives are in regards to their respective areas of administration. The honor congress can unseat any member of the honor staff they feel is unfit to continue serving with a two-thirds vote.</p>
<p>Overall Philosophy:</p>
<p>*The Honor Concept is the essence of the respect we have for each other and for our insitution, and our service. It is not about "lying, cheating, and stealing", it is about assisting somebody when they need help opening a door, or picking up somebody's books on Stribling when they drop them. It's not what you "don't do" that makes you honorable, it is "what you do".
*The Brigade owns the honor concept. Instead of having "honor committee chairmen", we have advisors who assist the Brigade's administration of the honor concept even at the lowest level. One person's voice has the ability to make wide-spread change within the honor congress</p>
Let the CC monitors do their jobs.</p>