In the last week, SGA passed the last two of three proposed reforms of the College Hearing Board, which granted public access to case records and created a provisional committee on the board.
SGA President Harry Krejsa ’10 and SGA Vice President Joanna DeMars ’10 proposed passing the first reform–which combines College Hearing Board and Judicial Council members, as well as releasing their names—at Joint Board in the beginning of the semester. After Joint Board occurred, they proposed the two other reforms—the second would release the College Hearing Board cases with names and dates omitted, and the third would creates the College Hearing Board ad hoc committee which forms guidelines for prosecuting cases. Last Wednesday, both were passed.
“There are not going to be names,” Krejsa said, referring to the second reform. “It’s going to be the bare bones information the community should know about these cases—what happened, what the charges were, what the findings of the Board was and what their recommendations as far as sanctions were.”
The new College Board ad hoc committee will decide the guidelines in which the cases will be prosecuted before each hearing. The committee will spend the semester creating initial guidelines for the cases.
“It’s charged with gathering feedback from all members of the community and consolidating disparate Hearing Board information and sentencing provisions,” Krejsa said. “[And] putting them together in one place where it will say, ‘These are the standards we want students to abide by on campus and when they violate our community standards, this is what we expect to be considered. This is the minimum sanctions we expect to be considered, with of course, leeway for aggravating and mitigating circumstances.’”
If you are interested in participating within the newly formed committee, please contact Krejsa at [sgaprez] or DeMars at [sgavpaa] for more information on how to become involved with the decision making process.