This campus could soon have a Code of Student Conduct that addresses misbehavior occurring off the campus, becoming one of the last schools within the University System of Maryland to do so.
The University Senate’s Student Conduct Committee is scheduled to decide on the bill’s final language today after a several-weeks-long review. Without the proposal, which Office of Student Conduct Director Andrea Goodwin introduced in fall 2012, the current student conduct code has limited means of holding students responsible for engaging in hazing, violence or sexual assault off the campus. If the bill passes the senate, those incidences would be within the office’s jurisdiction as long as students are involved and the incident has an impact on the university.
“We are trying to improve the well-being of the campus as a whole,” Goodwin said.
In addition, this campus is trying to keep up with other universities in the system that already have some kind of discretionary application of its code beyond campus borders, Goodwin added.
“Towson [University], for example, changed its code six years ago. We are learning from their experiences,” Goodwin said, adding that with a growing number of students living beyond the campus, the current code is due for a review. “It’s not working anymore.”
On Wednesday, Goodwin and Jason Speck, chairman of the Student Conduct Committee, presented the status of the bill at a Student Government Association meeting.
“This will be very beneficial to students,” Speck said, adding in the same way the Student Conduct Code addresses incidents on the campus without automatically reporting them to the police, the revised code would then apply to situations beyond the campus’ borders.
James Jalandoni, SGA’s governmental affairs director, expressed concerns the expanded jurisdiction could result in increased staff needs. However, Goodwin said she did not anticipate the office seeing a much larger case load.
“We just want to make the process easier. And we want to give victims of misbehavior, no matter where a situation occurs, [the ability] to have recourse on campus,” she added in regards to students who might feel hesitant to report an incident directly to the police. “They could come directly to me and my staff, and we would give them all the options they have.”
During the course of the proposal’s review, students raised concerns that an expansion of jurisdiction would have a “big brother” effect, meaning students could face university sanctions for every minor incident.
“We definitely don’t want to get more students into trouble,” Goodwin said. “We are only interested in cases that have substantial impact on this university.”
The proposal is part of a wider effort the university is taking to improve quality of life in College Park. For example, in the wake of increased complaints from permanent residents that student behavior creates a nuisance in many neighborhoods, the university’s Department of Public Safety has crafted a plan to increase community safety. Officials plan to expand University Police jurisdiction into a portion of the county, and a work group has recently been formed to improve communication between the student body, residents and decision makers.
“I think this can be beneficial to students,” graduate student Asad Jabbar said of an expanded code.
However, he added, “It can give the university too much power. They have to define how far they can go.”
The proposal does not yet include provisions as to where the Student Conduct Code’s expanded jurisdiction would end. However, Goodwin emphasized the reviewed code would not change how her office handles a reported situation. Ultimately, if the senate approves rewriting the Student Conduct Code, there will be an educational process to inform students about the changes.
In addition, the student body is still able to influence the process, as the SGA is scheduled to vote on a resolution supporting the senate bill in its upcoming Wednesday meeting.
