ASUI President Max Cowan proposed Wednesday that the University of Idaho include a record of sexual harassment charges with transcripts in serious cases.
When it comes to Title IX issues, Cowan said he wants the university to do more than just comply. He proposed the idea in response to incidents across the country where students have been found responsible for sexual assault, been expelled or left before expulsion and then were found responsible for sexual assault again at their new institution, he said.
Cowan said that most institutions do not even think to ask for a disciplinary record.
“I believe strongly that if we find that a student must be removed from our community for the safety of our community, that that is worth sharing with another institution if that student wishes to transfer,” Cowan said.
Kira Hunter | Argonaut
ASUI President Max Cowan discusses plans and goals for the University of Idaho and its students during his term in office.
The idea, Cowan said, will require a change in how the university deals with transfer requests.
“The conversation includes whether or not expulsion should be noted on a student”s transcript as well as what information we can release when a student requests their transcript be sent,” Cowan said.
Cowan said the project will require a lot of work with the Office of the Registrar as well as with the academic side of the institution. He said he would like to have the support of Jeanne Stevenson, vice provost of Academic Affairs.
He said it would also be helpful to have the support of the ASUI Senate, if a senator would like to take it on as a project.
For the proposal to become policy, Cowan said he would need to take the plan up the chain of command to the registrar”s office, the vice provost of academic affairs, the provost and executive vice president and then UI President Chuck Staben.
He said he has spoken briefly with Deputy General Counsel Guilherme Costa, Student Conduct Coordinator Alex Roberts and University Registrar Heather Chermak.
“As of yet it has been informal conversations about whether or not it would be possible to as well as opening up the dialogue about whether it is something worth doing and what would happen if we were to do it,” Cowan said.
First, Cowan said he wants to know if it would be possible to note a disciplinary expulsion with or on someone”s transcript.
“It is my opinion that this would not be a violation of FERPA,” Cowan said. “Additionally, Virginia passed a law that requires a similar action of its institutions.”
Cowan said he wants to open up a dialogue about whether this is something worth doing and looking into what the consequences are if the university were to enact such a policy.
“Are there cases that are so egregious that it would be irresponsible to not notify an institution when the student transfers?” Cowan said.
Cowan said he has had this conversation for a number of years with the Student Disciplinary Review board. He said the university should take action to notify other institutions when a student has become such a danger to the community that they are removed.
“That is when we should be doing our duty to notify institutions of what we have found,” Cowan said.
He said that most administrators see the transcript as sacred to academic information only, making marking the transcript directly more difficult than including the information separately with the transcript.
Cowan also briefed the ASUI Senate on ideas to recreate a bus system between Moscow and Pullman with difficult funding politics, to add a single sign-on to VandalSync and to support undergraduate research opportunities.
Nishant Mohan can be contacted at [email protected] and on Twitter @NishantRMohan