Ohio University administrators are looking to make changes to OU’s Student Code of Conduct — but the changes are for the language, not its policies.
Two open forums will be held this week about changes to the rules so students better understand the process and what each offense means, but there will be no change in the university’s policies, said Jenny Hall-Jones, dean of students.
“We want to be really clear, we’re not changing the drinking age, we’re not changing how we react to violations. What we’re focusing on is how can we better inform students, how can students better understand,” Hall-Jones said.
“We want people to be able to read the code and have it intuitively make sense to them.”
Hall-Jones has discussed making the changes with Martha Compton, director of Community Standards and Student Responsibility since Compton was hired in March 2013, Hall-Jones said. Student Senate passed a resolution last year asking for the code to be revised.
“Rules and people are ever changing,” said Anna Morton, Senate president. “It’s a living document, we need to change with times and current updates.”
Minor changes have been made to the code throughout the years, but an overall update has never been done, Hall-Jones said.
“It’s old; it hasn’t been looked at in a while,” Compton said.
Changing the language will take at least a year and all revisions will have to be approved by OU’s Board of Trustees, Hall-Jones said.
“It’s going to be a really long process,” Hall-Jones said. “This will be something that we’ll want to deeply vet, get a lot of student feedback on.”
@MarioDeVito13
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If You Go:
What Open forum on student conduct language changes
When 5-7 p.m., Monday
Where Walter Hall Room 235
Admission Free
What Open forum on student conduct language changes
When 5-7 p.m., Wednesday
Where Walter Hall Room 145
Admission Free
