Students are expected to abide by a code of honor in their academic work, and when there is suspicion that they haven’t, the usual procedure was that they’d have to appear before a student group — the honor court — to answer the charges.

Like so much in higher education, that tradition is giving way. That’s the case at UNC-Chapel Hill, as Professor Michael Behrent explains in today’s Martin Center article.

He writes:

The decision to replace the Honor Court with a Conduct Board certainly smacks of an expansion of administrative authority. Students involved in the honor system released a statement regretting the fact that the “university administration did not consult us — or any member of student government to our knowledge — about their decision.” Moreover, questions relating to student discipline have been at the heart of recent political controversies that have drawn attention to UNC-Chapel Hill, such as the protests against the Confederate statue in 2018-19 and the anti-Israel demonstrations last spring.

Is this a case of fixing something that wasn’t broke?

Read the whole thing.