Honor Code

ECCLESIASTICAL RELATIONSHIPS AND POLICIES

Fundamental to the accomplishment of the mission of the Honor Code Office are ongoing, vital
relationships between the Honor Code Office, the Student Honor Association, students, ecclesiastical leaders, faculty, university units, and university administration. The results of these appropriate interactions aid Honor Code Office personnel to assist students, including those who have violated the Honor Code. These interactions also help support Honor Code Office policies and procedures. This section of the manual outlines these specific relationships.

ECCLESIASTICAL LEADERS

Brigham Young University is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to provide a university education in an atmosphere that nurtures spiritual growth and a strong testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ. To enhance Honor Code adherence and support among BYU students, the Honor Code Office maintains a regular, cooperative liaison with stake, ward, and other ecclesiastical leaders.

Confidential communication shared between an ecclesiastical leader and an individual student is privileged. Therefore, students may confide their participation in violations of the Honor Code to their ecclesiastical leaders without fear of a direct report to the Honor Code Office. As ecclesiastical leaders support their students in development of spiritual understanding and personal responsibility, they may consult with Honor Code Office personnel regarding university policies and procedures. When students' ecclesiastical endorsements are revoked or students are disfellowshipped, excommunicated, or become disaffiliated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the bishops and/ or stake presidents are required to convey that change of status to the Honor Code Office. In turn, the Honor Code Office informs students of any actions taken related to their university status.

Responsibility for Student Standards
Campus officers are charged with the full responsibility for student standards. Just as Brigham Young University and Ricks College must control decisions to admit students, they must be fully responsible for decisions which lead to withdrawing academic privileges. That will accomplish two things, one external and one internal. Externally, accrediting agencies will see demonstrated the necessary and proper independence of the university and college. Internally, students, faculty, and staff will see that moral standards are academic standards, central to the quality of education in the university and the college.

At least three forms of close cooperation must continue: (a) campus officials will inform ecclesiastical officers upon taking disciplinary action which will cause a student to leave the university and therefore the Church unit; (b) the ecclesiastical officer will inform campus officials when a student has been disfellowshipped or excommunicated; and (c) the ecclesiastical officer may inform the university when he believes that the student presents a serious risk to the university community.

To assure that this division of responsibility is understood, two messages must be sent. One would come from the board of trustees to the officers of the campuses. The other would come to ecclesiastical officers of student units from their (ecclesiastical) leaders. Cooperation will be assured if both messages stress that independent action by the university and ecclesiastical officers will be guided by equal dedication to high standards and by appropriate communication.

Source: A statement adopted September 7, 1983, by the Boards of Trustees of Brigham Young University, Brigham Young University--Hawaii Campus, Ricks College, and LDS Business College.

Interactions Between Ecclesiastical Leaders and the BYU Honor Code Office
Board of trustee policy requires ecclesiastical leaders and Brigham Young University to act independently from one another. Ecclesiastical leaders determine a student's status in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The BYU Honor Code Office determines a student's status in the university. Though the Honor Code Office works cooperatively with ecclesiastical leaders and strives to weigh their recommendations heavily in determining its actions, it must make its decisions consistent with its specified action-selection criteria and independent from bishops' and stake presidents' recommendations.

Ecclesiastical leaders, of course, are responsible to work with students who have transgressed, counseling and encouraging them through the processes of repentance, including restitution to those whom the students have offended. The university recognizes this responsibility of ecclesiastical leaders, and it recognizes that there are several appropriate ways for the students to make restitution to the campus community. Therefore, in no instance, as ecclesiastical leaders work with students who have broken the university's Honor Code, are they obligated to have these offending students report their misconduct to the Honor Code Office. But in those instances when they are impressed to have the students report to the Honor Code Office, both the students and their ecclesiastical leaders should understand that the Honor Code Office will consult and cooperate with the ecclesiastical leaders. At the same time, it will preserve the distinction between the university and the Church, making its decisions consistent with prior decisions and with its written policies.

Source: Statement read by Elder Neal Andersen at the Annual Meeting of the Area Authority, Ecclesiastical Leaders, and BYU Administrators on September 27, 1997.