Student Handbook to recieve a facelift in the coming years

The Code of Conduct and Process Review Committee discussed recent revisions and drastic changes to the Student Handbook in open forums Wednesday and Thursday.The President's Cabinet approved the Code of Conduct and Process Review Committee, which held two open forums for anyone in the Bonaventure community to attend and one closed meeting for committee members per semester.

The Code of Conduct and Process Review Committee was created to review the new code of conduct several times a semester, and is an opportunity for people to come forth with questions and suggestions for the student Code of Conduct, Nichole Gonzalez, director of residential life and chief judicial affairs officer, said.

"We put the review of the Code of Conduct in last year, because there has never been a formal review of it," Gonzalez said. "It is much better than the Handbook - there wasn't any sort of structure."

Gonzalez pointed out the new way the university handles a violation is significantly different from what existed last year.

In the old Code of Conduct, there were levels of violations that made the judicial system more complicated than it should be, Gonzalez said.

"Instead of different levels of violations, there is an alcohol violation policy," Gonzalez said. "A student does not get three different violations for abusing the alcohol policy, however the parts of the violation are still there."

In replacement of the levels of violations, there are principles listed in the new Code that students are expected to follow, said Gonzalez. The principles revolve around respect and reflect the morals of the university.

A change in the procedure for drinking violations was discussed in the forum.

In the new system, the role of the Residence Director is eliminated in the process, because they feel it hindered the RD's ability to connect with students, Gonzalez said.

"With violations, I am the only person you will see," Gonzalez said. "It is more efficient, we have cut down on the amount of time spent on violations and we disclose the incident report to the student so they come into the hearing already having read the report."

The Code could use some more improvement however, including its handling of cases with students with disabilities, Gonzalez said.

"We need a more definitive procedure for dealing with situations with students with disabilities," Gonzalez said. "We need to outline it, and put it into writing."

In regards to the old Code of Conduct, Gonzalez said she would not label it as failing, but definitely in need of reconstruction.

The committee also covered the way recommendations were made to the Cabinet.

The Process Review Committee will make any minor recommendations to the vice provost, who in turn will take it to the Cabinet for approval, Gonzalez said. For major recommendations, SGA will be contacted, along with the vice provost, senate faculty, and finally the Cabinet for approval.

The university compared its old Code of Conduct to 10 different institutions, according to Gonzalez. It looked at SUNY schools and private schools similar to Bonaventure and felt a change in the code was needed to make for a more efficient system.

Despite playing a big role in the newly drafted Code of Conduct, Gonzalez said she would not be chair of the committee.

Rather, other members of the committee will select the chair of the committee, Gonzalez said.

This marks the first major change to the Code of Conduct in over a decade

"I came here in 1998, and there have been no major changes to the Code of Conduct since I've been here," Gonzalez said.