Committee aims to clarify Code of Conduct

The Student Code of Conduct is currently undergoing a thorough amendment process as a result of recommendations from various sources on campus.

"What we are attempting to do here is simplify the process, clarify the process so that students and everyone involved understands it, and then expedite the process," said John Stein, Interim Dean of Students and Director of Success Programs.

Currently, if a student is charged with academic misconduct, such as cheating or plagiarism, he or she must first attend an intake interview, then a judicial conference, then possibly a judicial hearing, and then the student has the right to request an administrative hearing.

"These can be very confusing to individuals, especially if a student is not familiar with all the things that go on within an institution, [so] it appeared that we needed to keep looking at how we could simplify the process more.," said William Schafer, Vice President of Student Affairs.

"I think one of the things that potentially is unfair is that if a student is caught in any kind of violation, academic or non-academic, for whatever set of circumstances, it's possible that at the onset of that violation, weeks and sometimes months can go by before there is resolution, and that is really not fair," said Stein.

A representative committee of students, faculty, and staff was formed last spring to carefully analyze the code of conduct and make the policies and overall judicial processes more efficient.

The committee is also considering merging the undergraduate and graduate judiciary cabinets.

"There is a recommendation that will go forward to consider combining those two so that there will be student members of both the graduate and the undergraduate serving on one committee. The thought here is to streamline the process," Stein said.

Before the adoption of the committee's amendments go into effect, the proposals must go through a strenuous approval process.

The proposal has to first go through the Student Government Association, where it will be carefully evaluated. Then it goes to Rules and Regulations Committee of the Faculty Senate. Then it is presented before the Faculty Senate.

"So we are driven by the number of meetings that happen for the faculty senate during an academic semester. The hope is that we will put something forth to the community and have this all approved by the end of the fall term," Stein said.

According to Schafer, the current attempt to amend the Code of Conduct is more comprehensive that previous ones.

"What we are doing is different from what had been done in the past. Before I came to Tech, there was a real specific focus to look at the academic integrity process, but we are looking at the whole process, which involves both the non-academic stuff that occurs as well as the academic," Schafer said.

After speaking with students, faculty and staff regarding these policies, Schafer acknowledged the fact that the current system needed some fine-tuning.

"I think the process has been a good one because it has involved all the right people," Stein said.

"I think the importance of the students and the faculty components are due to the fact that they are the individuals that comprise the hearing boards, so they have the experience of dealing with the issues and the complexity of some of these cases and trying to come up with fair sanctions," Stein said.

The current amendment process is also aiming to close the information gap between the Code of Conduct policies and processes and the students.

"We introduce the [Student Code of Conduct] to students at FASET orientation, but it's usually after they get their first notification of a violation that they then backtrack and find out what the steps are to this or what can happen to me. I think this is something that you only understand when you need to understand them," Stein said.

According to Schafer, the Code of Conduct is an area that students don't spend a lot of time studying.

"We have a responsibility of always looking for ways for getting this information out to students, so they can be informed and keep giving us feedback and asking us questions," Schafer said.

"I'm glad that we are not rushing through it, because I think it is something that is worthy of time and focus. And so I think spending time with it is useful and beneficial for us as a community," Stein said.