Last week, UW staff, students and community members debated the proposed changes to the UW misconduct policy, including changes to UWS 17 and a new UWS 18 in the UW Administrative Code.
Included in the changes are a bevy of controversial issues that have students' rights advocates up in arms, especially changes that threaten students' due process rights in incidences of misconduct proceedings. In the proposed UW misconduct codes, allowing students to have legal representation would be at the discretion of the hearing examiner. In addition, the university has increased jurisdiction over students for off-campus offenses.
Although the panel presiding over the cases is made up of UW faculty and a student representative, UW should not remove the right for a student to have a legal intermediary in their questioning and proceedings. Even with such an informal panel (as opposed to legal experts or a judicial figure), students deserve the right to have a legal expert in any case regarding misconduct charges in order to properly convey their case and defend their actions.
UW-Madison prepares students to become active and diligent citizens just as much as it prepares students for opportunities in their chosen fields. Any changes designed to protect the student body against students with a well-documented history of sexual assault or repeated violent acts is a worthy endeavor. However, shirking students' due process rights in order to make a more complicated environment for a student's own defense is an inappropriate and ill-advised way to prepare students for defending their own rights in a court of law.
Included in the new UWS 18 code is a stipulation to expand UW-Madison's ability to punish off-campus violations. The student misconduct codes should be made to reflect the increased awareness and safety concerns of individuals with violent histories and documented cases of sexual assault. However, some of the stipulations, in what are considered dangerous acts detrimental to campus safety, are not well-defined. Ultimately, the off-campus violation expansion should be used only as a resource in serious sexual assault cases or repeated violent offenses rather than serving as ""Big Brother"" against petty crimes and occasional moral lapses of the larger student body. The last thing UW needs is to pursue minor offenses in an attempt to establish a moral barometer for the university.
The Board of Regents should only utilize expanded UW jurisdiction over off-campus crimes in cases of extreme and clear detrimental behavior to the university. As the recent allegations in the fraternity sector have shown, the university has an inherent responsibility to explore any means necessary for ensuring campus safety, as long as it does not compromise the rights of students.
