By Matt Collette
In its meeting Monday, the Student Government Association (SGA) held an open forum about the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) to determine what issues students wanted addressed in the Code of Student Conduct.
SGA senators and some students attended the meeting, which was held in 20 West Village F.
“Student interest in this has obviously grown in the past few weeks, or month or so. It’s been compounded by the issues we’ve had with arrests and other problems on Mission Hill,” SGA President Joey Fiore said. “We want to hear your problems, your specific stories so we can start to underline these problems that we’ve had.”
Derek Miller, a middler economics and political science major and former SGA senator, created the Facebook group “Respect Our Rights, Northeastern: Reform OSCCR” in October. At press time, the group had close to 500 members. Miller said that there was a general consensus among students that OSCCR needs reform and change.
“Everyone knows what’s wrong with OSCCR,” Miller said at Monday’s meeting. “How can we use this leverage we have as 15,000 students? The basic idea is that we have real influence to change anything.”
One of the first issues discussed was that many senators said they felt the majority of Northeastern students were unfamiliar with the university’s Code of Student Conduct, which outlines standards of student behavior and explains the maximum punishment for offenses. Many said they felt the 16-page document, part of the student handbook and available online at OSCCR’s website, was too vague and did not clearly delineate the punishments for each offense.
Also discussed at the SGA meeting was that student policies in other university publications contradict each other. One senator pointed out that while AlcoholEdu says students who choose not to drink can still go to parties, OSCCR and NUPD do not make that distinction.
An issue discussed at the meeting was that the sheer number of cases OSCCR had to deal with resulted in long periods of time between when students were reported to when they met with their Resident Director (RD) or someone from OSCCR. Then students wait even more before being notified of the verdict, students at the meeting said.
“I think OSCCR should focus on the true offenders other than the ones that just happen to be there,” said Senator MJ Paradiso, who spoke against what he viewed as a “guilty by association” OSCCR mindset.
SGA Vice President for Student Affairs Marines Piney said about two-thirds of the students reported to OSCCR last year were found guilty of a Code of Student Conduct violation.
“OSCCR needs to be an advisor, a friend; not Big Brother,” said sophomore senator Amanda Sabia, a political science major.
Miller said he recently spoke with an RD who said the Code of Student Conduct had two “catch-all” clauses, ‘aiding and abetting’ and ‘a violation of the Code of Student Conduct,” that allowed students to be written up even if they had not technically violated the Code of Student Conduct.
The Senate also discussed the Medical Amnesty Policy, which is discussed in five paragraphs on page 22 of the Student Handbook. The majority of the Senate agreed that the policy, which requires students to take action within five business days, was far too complicated.
“It should be so simple that you can understand it while you’re drunk,” Miller said.
Also discussed was the Student Conduct Hearing Board, a group of students who determine the outcome of conduct hearings. The Student Conduct Hearing Board is technically the third arm of the SGA, said Vice President for Student Services Chris Bourne, though the government has entrusted its operation to OSCCR, according to the SGA website.
When students at the meeting questioned the qualifications of students seeking membership onto the Student Conduct Hearing Board, Vice President for Academic Affairs Stephen Lavenberg said there is an extensive application process.
While Fiore said that the Facebook group Miller created had attracted many students, he said it wasn’t enough for the SGA to demand change in OSCCR policies.
“A Facebook list of issues is not adequate enough for SGA to move forward with these issues,” Fiore said.
Miller said SGA should draft a Sense of the Senate resolution to enumerate the Senate’s concerns about OSCCR, though the meeting adjourned without further action being taken.
Fiore also said during the meeting that SGA has several students on the committee that meet annually to review the Code of Student Conduct and that the Senate would actively work with the committee during its annual meetings.
