Interim President Don Burnett approved a policy change to expand the jurisdiction of the student code of conduct to include off-campus behavior on Dec. 30. In addition to the approval, the signing statement said the Dean of Students is required to confer with university leaders to determine the scope of the new policy.
“I expect the Dean of Students to consult with leaders of the Faculty Senate, leaders of the ASUI Senate and leaders of the student GPSA and SBA, in developing general criteria for these determinations and in updating the criteria as circumstances may warrant,” Burnett wrote.
Associate Dean of Students Craig Chatriand met with University of Idaho leaders on Friday to discuss the expanded jurisdiction policy. The discussion included Faculty Senate Chair Patricia Hartzell, GPSA President Kate Cobb and SBA President Ivar Gunderson — ASUI President Max Cowan was in Boise and unable to attend the meeting.
The new policy states disciplinary action may be taken for “off campus conduct that violates the Student Code of Conduct and that adversely affects the university community or the pursuit of the university’s educational mission, process, or function, as determined by the Dean of Students.”
Chatriand said the Dean of Students does not anticipate creating concrete guidelines for the expanded jurisdiction, because each alleged violation will take into account the context, proximity and severity of the behavior.
“What I tried to do is explain our approach,” Chatriand said. “Trying to explain it through examples. Instead of coming up with a list of every situation that we’re going to care about and every single situation that we’re not, what we’re trying to do is show what we’re trying to accomplish through examples.”
Issues of off-campus assaults, hazing, underage drinking in groups and hate and bias crimes were some of the examples Chatriand used to describe the need for off-campus jurisdiction. He said the closer to campus an incident occurs, the more likely it is that it will be looked into, because of its adverse affect on the university.
“If there’s a student who’s at home and they get an underage drinking violation, then the Dean of Students isn’t going to automatically jump up and look into the issue,” Cobb said. “They’re going to look at it and say ‘how many violations have you had?’ If this is your first violation, chances are you’re going to have to go through an education program, but that’s it. You won’t get suspended or be in deep trouble.”
Cobb also said students who are worried about the expanded jurisdiction should know the Dean of Students finds out about off-campus behavior via reports — she said the Dean of Students is not going to search for breaches of the Student Code of Conduct.
“The Dean of Students has to find out about the behavior, before they can penalize anyone,” Cobb said. “So if you’re in Southern Idaho and get in trouble, I doubt the police or your parents are going to contact the university to report the incident. So I think the Dean of Students will mostly worry about behavior that happens in the Moscow area.”
Patrica Hartzell, chair of faculty senate, said she supports the expansion of jurisdiction — because she believes it’s there to help students and assist UI in achieving its educational mission.
“This will allow the dean to first of all work a little more closely with groups on campus,” Hartzell said. “It will improve communication between the Dean of Students and police, but they already have a good relationship, and it will allow us to really intervene if there are students who are living off campus and doing something that’s really negatively impacting another student — the Dean of Students will be able to do something about it.”
Cobb said the concerns of the expanded jurisdiction stem from students who are uncomfortable with being accountable for their actions both on and off campus.
“My general impression is that students are worried, because now it’ll basically make them act smarter,” Cobb said. “When they want to go out and drink, they’ll have to be smarter about where they’re drinking and who they’re drinking with if their underage. It’ll make them think twice about whether or not someone is going to report them for beating up another student or not.”
While the Dean of Students has no plans to establish a list of behaviors to look into, Chatriand said more examples would be available in the future, as expanded jurisdiction cases become more common — two off-campus cases are currently open.
“In both of the instances we’re dealing with now, the students came to us and they both have an assault component” Chatriand said. “We’re happy to help out these students, the changed policy allows us to intervene and gives us the tools necessary to deal with the issue to ensure the campus, and community are safer places.”
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]