Changes could be made to the way students are disciplined at the University of Idaho.
Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting revolved around the new draft of revisions to the student disciplinary process.
Four employees at UI presented their draft revisions of the current Student Code of Conduct regarding discipline and investigations. Deputy General Counsel Jim Craig, Dean of Students Blaine Eckles and Faculty Senate Secretary Liz Brandt gave the senate an overview of the changes included in their new proposals. Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Investigations, Erin Agidius, said the new changes would not impact UI’s compliance with Title IX in any way.
The new investigatory process will include four stages according to the presenters: Investigation, Student Conduct Administrator, Student Conduct Board and Appeal. If added into the code, this process will eliminate many of the current mandatory hearings and processes during disciplinary investigations.
The senate is scheduled to vote on the revisions Oct. 10. In the meantime, the senate was given recommendation by Faculty Senate Chair Patrick Hrdlicka to communicate with their constituents about the revisions up for vote.
The student code’s task force has existed for about two and a half years and, over the time, has consisted of faculty and various students, including current ASUI Vice President Catherine Yenne, Brandt said.
The last revision of the Student Code of Conduct in 2013 and 2014 was highly contested, Brandt said. She said what emerged was a mixture between two different models regarding disciplinary processes. Since then, the senate has passed some revisions they saw emergent to the code, one of which resulted in the creation of the Student Appeals Committee in 2016.
The new revisions aim to make the investigatory and hearing process regarding disciplinary actions move quicker. Brandt said the goal is not to change any of the substantive provisions in the conduct, but to change the process in which they investigate and conclude cases.
Eckles gave an overview of some perceived problems the revision seeks to fix. Eckles said some of the university’s main responsibilities regarding the disciplinary process are to ensure students understand the process and that the process is timely and as fair as possible.
“The processes that we have engaged in at our institution here for a while have not been student friendly,” Eckles said. “You cannot say any hearing that lasts more than two hours is student friendly. It’s then a celebration of how long we can make this process occur and that is not our goal nor our intent. It’s very traumatic for both a complainant and a respondent in the process.”
Craig then addressed the process the task force went to, along with its partners, to draft the new revisions. Craig said the process was collaborative and included participation from The Dean of Student’s Office, faculty and staff, students and other groups on campus. Craig also said the changes, if put into effect, will enhance the investigation process and give those involved better access to information before hearings. This way, he said, hearings can be conducted faster.
Agidius said the UI Office of Civil Rights and Investigations reports directly to the president, so it considers itself to be a very independent and non-biased office on campus. According to Agidius, the office has around two investigators working on cases at any given point in time.
“I’m very appreciative of how thoughtful people were in terms of Title IX and the complainant and the respondent and due process, but I think the important thing is that this code and what’s been drafted is also meant to apply to all student code of conduct violations, not just Title IX, but it does keep that in mind,” Agidius said. “For that, I think the collaboration of this process will be very beneficial to our students.”
Elizabeth Marshall can be reached at [email protected]