University of Idaho’s influence on its students increased during winter break when Interim President Don Burnett approved the addition of a clause to expand jurisdiction of the Student Code of Conduct to include off-campus activity.G Costa, associate general counsel for UI, said Burnett approved the change with a signature on Dec. 30 and the new policy went into effect Jan. 1.
According to the new text in the UI Faculty Staff Handbook, 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.”
Associate Dean of Students Craig Chatriand — one of the original contributors to the revised Student Code of Conduct — said the Dean of Students Office has some preparation to do before the new policy is officially carried out.
“It’s an important policy change,” Chatriand said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time to figure out how exactly we are going to look at off-campus behavior.
Because of this, although it is in effect, they are going to wait until Feb. 1 to start enforcing and addressing off-campus behavior, Chatriand said.
The language in the new code states that the Dean of Students Office will ultimately determine what kind of off-campus behavior will be looked into and potentially disciplined, but Chatriand said there is no list of behaviors and it will be on a case-by-case basis.
“One of the things that will be taken into consideration is the context of the behavior in question,” Chatriand said. “The proximity of campus and the severity of the behavior for example — the cases are going to be looked at individually. We’re going to try and be as consistent as we can be, but we know the context of the situation is important.”
Chatriand said the Dean of Students Office will use real-life examples to illustrate how off-campus behavior may adversely affect UI and to inform students of the kind of behaviors the office will look into.
“If we have two students, for example, and one student assaults the other and it’s off-campus, in their apartment complex or somewhere downtown, that impacts the university’s education mission,” Chatriand said. “One of those students is going to be afraid to come to campus and run into the other person. So the new policy is going to allow us bring some resolution to that situation.
Both Chatriand and ASUI President Max Cowan said UI looked toward other education institutions with an off-campus jurisdiction clause to create the new policy — mentioning Washington State University as an example of successful implementation.
“WSU students are also attending an institution where off-campus activities can be extensively looked into by university officials,” Cowan said. “To my knowledge, there has not been any retaliation from WSU students and the policy has been enacted effectively.”
Cowan said although he thinks expanding jurisdiction is a necessary policy change, the process should have been more inclusive of student input.
“It was simply done too swiftly and without enough student input,” Cowan said. “I’m not saying there wasn’t any student input, because there definitely was, but I think greater efforts could have been made to include more students such as holding a vote.”
In December, the Idaho State Board of Education approved a policy change that reaffirmed the university president’s authority to approve amendments to the Statement of Student Rights without a vote from the students — a stipulation previously in effect.
Costa said the issue that was resolved by the SBOE was making the language in the UI policy consistent with a precedent already set by the board. Before the meeting, it was understood that there needed to be a favorable vote of at least 35 percent of the student body for a change of the Statement of Student Rights to be made, when really student input is not required via SBOE policy.
“The board didn’t do anything new and I hope that doesn’t get lost in this,” Costa said. “The UI policy put a roadblock on what the board assigned the president to do.”
Chatriand said he and Dean of Students Bruce Pitman are adamant about receiving student feedback about the new policy change and they want students with any concerns, questions or ideas to reach out to the Dean of Students Office.
“This is our university,” Chatriand said. “We need to work together to make this policy work and I think if we can call do that — faculty, students, staff and administrators. We’re going to be in a better place because of this policy change.”
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]