Following a large number of responses and comments on his poll on Title IX, ASUI President Max Cowan said having a conversation is never offensive.
The poll asked students whether they think transcripts should be marked to include that the student was expelled from the University of Idaho, including if the student was expelled due to sexual assault.
Since Cowan sent it out Oct. 1, the poll has garnered 515 responses – 85 percent in favor – and 139 comments from about 30 different commenters as of Sunday.
Megan Gospe | Argonaut
ASUI President Max Cowan speaks at an ASUI Senate meeting.
“I think the comments brought up some legitimate concerns about exactly how the expulsion is listed, what kind of language is used around it and how we deal with students as a result of their expulsion,” Cowan said.
The comments ranged from strongly in favor of the transcript note to strongly against and everything in between.
Cowan said a range of more specific comments and questions and a drift in the discussion revealed confusion about the university”s responsibilities in sexual assault cases and the framing of the transcript discussions so far.
One of the major questions commenters had was why the poll focused on sexual assault when the result of the policy would mark transcripts for expulsions regardless of the reason, Cowan said.
“It”s an effort to be genuine,” he said. “If we did not mention sexual assault specifically, I don”t think we”d be honest about the origin of this project.”
Much like the previous week”s poll on medical amnesty, Cowan said the poll made him feel he and ASUI are doing the right thing – despite the results not being nearly as positive as the previous poll.
“We”d been having conversations about noting expulsions on transcripts,” Cowan said. “And I think that although we had been talking about this, I don”t think I felt as confident about the position ASUI should take until this poll was taken.”
Commenters cited other concerns as well. Cowan said a number of people voiced concerns that the transcript should be for academic records only.
“I believe that expulsion is an academic record,” he said. “The fact that your time at the institution has ended and you are no longer welcome to take classes is the academic portion.”
Cowan said the comments have helped him with how to word the note on transcripts. He said he thinks the language used should be dispassionate and simple.
The results of the poll, Cowan said, have made it clear that not only does the note on the transcript need to be clear, but he also needs to be clearer in how he discusses the issue.
Although the conversation has been about sexual assault, Cowan said he wants to make sure students understand that it is hard to be expelled for reasons other than sexual assault and the note would not state the reason for expulsion.
“It would not say “expelled for”¦,”” he said.
Cowan said the goal of the note is to start a conversation with the receiving institution. He said he thinks a university should be able to make an informed decision when admitting a student to their institution.
“If a student were transferring to the University of Idaho, and they had been expelled from their previous institution, I think we would want to know that before admitting that student,” Cowan said.
Cowan said his personal goal is for UI to take a leadership role around the country to promote similar policies that make notes of expulsion on transcripts the nationwide standard.
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan