UMW Honor Council hosts first ever Falling for Honor Day to remind students of honor code before fall midterm season

by SOPHIA TOMPKINS

Online Editor

On Oct. 8, UMW’s Honor Council and Student Government Association held the first annual Falling for Honor Day, an event held to remind students about the honor code as midterms approach. 

“Falling for Honor Day is a day created by the Honor Council that is meant to promote our organization, and then also promote honor as a whole on campus and promoting the idea of being a trustworthy campus member, and then also respecting your peers and things like that,” said Maggie Winters, a junior English major in the education program and a UMW Honor Council Outreach Committee Member. 

The Council chose this week because it is the middle of the semester and they felt this was when the event would make an impact on the community. 

“We are hosting it this year to have a bigger impact on the community and bring more awareness to the Honor Council,” said Sydney Hawes, a sophomore business administration major and the Honor Council Events Coordinator. 

She continued, “We’re just hoping it brings awareness to people to not cheat, lie, or anything like that, before finals and midterms, especially for a break.”

Throughout the day, there were many different events to engage students around the honor system. Throughout the day, representatives from the Council and SGA gave away free Celsius, Alani, coffee, popcorn and ice cream, among other giveaways. 

“Students can expect more awareness of the honor code, through giveaways, through different themed events like on the Alani cans, there’s going to be an Honor Council sticker, so that will hopefully be a reminder throughout the morning, and just make a lasting impact on students and remind them that the honor code really lives in our campus community,” said Adam McAninley, a junior environmental science and political science double major and the Honor Council president.  

In addition to the various giveaways, students had the opportunity to reflect on their time at UMW at an event called Advice to Your Freshman Self. 

“We’re going to have a camera with the Mary Wash Instagram account, and they’re going to be advice I could tell my future self about midterms or finals, and they’re going to upload half the video for midterms, and then the other half for finals,” said Hawes. 

Throughout the day, students will be able to talk to Honor Council members and learn more about their organization. 

“We’re going to have advice from actual Honor Council members, and then we’re also going to talk about what it means to be on Honor Council, and how that also intersects with being a UMW student,” said Winters. 

Hawes says Honor Council has been planning the events since before the academic year started.  

“We’ve been working on at least workshopping some ideas for what would work and what would make the most impact,” said McAninley. 

This event will allow community members to be more knowledgeable about the Honor Council. 

“Students can expect to just become more knowledgeable in what Honor Council does and who is on the Honor Council, as well as what they can do for volunteering opportunities,” said Winters.

The Honor Council is planning a sister event to Falling for Honor in the spring semester, which remains in the proposal phase at this time. 

“We’re hoping that Falling for Honor and the sister event become kind of a tradition on campus, so that it happens semester after semester,” said McAninley. 

The council is excited for this event because it gives them an opportunity to connect with campus.

“I’d say we are trying to do a lot of events, because the Honor Council feels like we’re kind of detached from the community on campus,” said Winters. “We don’t want to be seen as this scary authoritative figure.”