11.8.1. Election of TU Student Members

Each spring semester a notice will be sent to all TU students inviting them to either apply for a position on the honor council for the subsequent academic year or to nominate a peer(s) to serve. At the same time, all full-time faculty members and all current honor council members will be invited to nominate TU students for a position on the honor council for the following academic year. Students who are nominated will be so informed by the honor council secretary and will be encouraged to apply for membership.

All those who apply or are nominated will be asked to write an essay on why they would like to serve. Those essays will be submitted to the honor council secretary.

After the application deadline, a three-person review group will be formed. The review group will consist of the vice president for campus life, the secretary of the honor council and a faculty member serving on the honor council who is currently finishing his/her second year of service; this faculty member will be appointed by mutual agreement of the other two parties named above. The review group will examine the essays and other information collected and can, by unanimous consent, strike any person who has applied or been nominated for reasons either of not meeting the minimum qualifications or of compelling potential (even if unproven) incompatibility with the precepts and standards of the honor code. Members of the review group are permitted and encouraged to consult with faculty and staff members who are well acquainted with each applicant before rendering a decision.

Those who are stricken are not notified of that action at any time. The review panel will never disclose to any other party the results of its deliberations.

A slate of nominees is prepared for the TU program, including the names of all those who applied or were nominated for election; the names of those who have been stricken are also included.

Elections will be carried out online under the auspices of IT services, which will certify the vote totals to the honor council secretary. After the period allowed for voting has expired and the vote totals have been reported to the secretary, the names of those who were stricken in advance will be eliminated from the roster. The top 12 remaining TU vote recipients will have been elected to the honor council for the subsequent academic year. In the case of a tie for 12th place, the same three-person review group defined above will meet to randomly select the winner from among those tied. The names of the next several vote recipients will be retained in the event that any of the electees is unable to complete his/her term of service.

Only the names (and not the vote totals or the ordinal ranking) of those elected will be divulged.

All TU student terms are for approximately 15 months (the following academic year plus the summer immediately following the student’s election). Students who graduate at the end of a given spring semester may, if available, continue to serve on the honor council during the ensuing summer semester.