By Ethan Lyne
After an exhausting Special Plenary on April 8, many students thought that the drama around the Honor Code would subside and life on campus would return to normal. However, a late-afternoon email on Wednesday, April 18 from Haverford President Kim Benston jolted the student body back into a period of confusion and uncertainty about the Code’s future.
The e-mail notified students that the administration was implementing an interim set of governing rules due to the expiration of the Honor Code. This was due to a rule in the Students’ Constitution that states that when the Honor Code fails ratification after the Spring Plenary, students have six weeks to convene a Special Plenary, pass a new Honor Code, and receive the signature by President Benston to this new Honor Code. The deadline for this process was 6 p.m. on April 18.
In this April 18 email, President Benston stated that he was not prepared to pass the new Honor Code at this time. He described the Code as containing “several passages of serious concern to me and to many faculty, particularly in the Academic portion.”
“I cannot in good conscience approve the new Code,” he concluded, “Until faculty have had an opportunity to express their concerns and deliberate on the best way forward.”
In consultation with Provost Fran Blase and Dean of the College Martha Denney, President Benston put in place an interim set of academic and social procedures to deal with any potential issues in the community. This set of rules, among other changes, removed many of the student governance structures in place under the Honor Code.
This move generated student pushback across the campus. Students rapidly planned a sit-in outside of the President’s Office scheduled for Thursday, April 19, to call for the replacement of this interim set of procedures with the previous version of the Honor Code.
President Benston responded via email early on the morning of Thursday, April 19, stating that he had met with student representatives last week, who had actually advised him not to continue the old Honor Code once it had expired. He expressed that he was willing to reimplement the old Honor Code in place of the interim set of rules, causing some confusion among students of just who was advocating for what solution.
Students soon called off the sit-in after the President stated his support for their goal. He also assured students that he was open to working with them as much as possible throughout this process of addressing his and faculty’s concerns.
Later on Thursday, student leaders from Student Council, Honor Council, and Special Plenary Committee sent out an email with a poll to gather student opinion on whether or not the old Honor Code should replace the interim set of rules and procedures as President Benston addresses the signing of the new Honor Code.
After the required 50 percent of the student body had voted, it was determined that a majority were in favor of temporarily restoring the old Honor Code and these results were sent along to President Benston. President Benston later sent out an email on Sunday, April 22, in confirmation that the old Honor Code would be put back in place as work is done to pass a viable new Honor Code. This marked the end of one of the two main concerns of students from the April 18 email, and now the focus turns toward addressing the concerns that President Benston and the faculty have brought forward regarding the new version of the Honor Code.
We will have continuing coverage of the crisis around Haverford’s Honor Code and this second issue of authorizing the Honor Code passed by students at Special Plenary. Stay tuned!
