Despite objections from student leaders, the University Senate approved the revised Student Conduct Code last week, authorizing the changes to take effect next year. Although all student members of the Senate, which includes 45 faculty representatives and five students, voted against the changes, 24 of 26 faculty voted for them. This illustrates a clear rift between student and faculty perceptions of the code.
Students’ rights, including their right to have an attorney speak for them or cross-examine the opposing party during the judicial process, will be affected by the changes. Thus it was unfair that the voice of students was practically nullified during the process of approving the code. The provision that a student who gets into a fight off campus with a nonstudent can be disciplined is another example of why students on the University Senate opposed the revisions. Few faculty members are truly more adept than students in determining how to deal with off-campus assault. Yet students were left with no real power in the approval of a University policy that will have dramatic effects on their academic careers and social lives.
Although we believe that the code should be limited to academic issues rather than an attempt to legislate the morality of students’ off-campus behavior, the issue of representation must be addressed during inevitable future revisions. It should be required that both the 18-member Student Senate and the University Senate approve alterations before any code will be accepted. Students are intelligent, functioning adults with a great stake in this University. It’s clear that the faculty ignored real student concerns to expedite the revision process, and this must be prevented in future years.