Student code flawed from inception

Wanting to fill in for parents, the Code of Student Conduct jeopardizes students' rights

By Jack Schillaci
Daily Editorial Page Writer

First-year students are ready. They have packed their belongings and are moving away from their parents for the first time. They will cram everything they own into a tiny little space called a residence hall and begin to experience the life of an adult.

But wait, they are not adults - at least not in the eyes of the University. The University wants to be every students' new mother and father, because students really do not know how to handle their own lives.

But students can vote, smoke cigarettes, drink too much, dance the night away, zone out on caffeine or make a late-night run to the Brown Jug. But the University wants to make sure student life is sheltered, so they came up with the Code of Student Conduct to maintain the University's "scholarly community."

The premise behind this pretentious tripe is an outdated administrative doctrine called in loco parentis - or literally, in lieu of parents. Excuse me, but isn't getting away from one's parents one of the main advantages of going away to college?

Many students will never be affected by the Code.

But those who are - whether accusing someone or defending themselves - often come to view it as more of a hindrance than a help.

The Code is full of botched legalistic language that are all but un-enforcable by the University because, try as it may, the University is not a government. And the Code is not a penal statute - real statutes are long, complex documents that have taken decades to mold, unlike the Code's simplistic sentences.

The Code's arbitration procedure may try to mimic a court but it takes significant liberties from the foundations of the judicial system. For instance, a student found innocent in a criminal court was found guilty under the Code. Hmm ... sounds a little bit like "double jeopardy." And since Code records are closed, no sort of precedent can be established. So every hearing starts from scratch - giving Resolution Coordinators too much leeway to decide how individual cases go.

The Code is also supposed to be a learning experience. What could be more educational than getting kicked out of school? And to "maximize the educational potential of the process, both parties must agree to the admission of any other people to the arbitration," according to the Code. The logic gets a little thin in these parts: How does excluding outsiders make an arbitration any more educational?

Thanks to the insistence of Regent Andrea Fischer Newman (R-Ann Arbor) the Code will come up for review at the April 1998 regents' meeting. Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford will defend the Code's worth. But the Code has long since proved worthless to students - it is time for administrators to acknowledge that and throw it out like the trash that it is.

09-03-97