Aiken considering judicial code panel

Provost Michael Aiken is planning to address student concerns about the new judicial charter, but Aiken said yesterday that he has not decided if a new committee to continue the review of the charter will be set up. Aiken, who is working on the new charter with Vice Provost for University Life Kim Morrisson, was advised by University Council last week to appoint a committee to review the charter further after students complained their views were not represented in the recent revisions. The proposed revisions do not include splitting the Judicial Inquiry Officer's position into two parts, a "prosecutorial" JIO and a "settlement" JIO, as students have asked several times in the past. The judicial charter's revisions were endorsed by University Council, but in approving the changes, Council advised Aiken to examine it further. While Aiken and Morrisson work on student concerns, the provost said he expects each school at the University to begin to go through the steps to approve the charter. When the charter is acepted, Aiken said he does not expect it to apply retroactively. Morrisson said that although she and Aiken have not met formally to discuss this issue, she will be involved in monitoring and following-up the policy once it is implemented. The revised judicial charter states that there should be systematic review at least every five years. "I think it is appropriate to review it sooner," Morrisson said. Morrisson said she is also exploring other ways to address student concerns about the JIO. One option is to set up a student-faculty advisory board which would establish "theoretical sanctions" for various types of violations of the code. This would ensure a basis of community support for the sanctions, Morrisson said. The advisory board should be established by the beginning of next semester, she added. The revisions of the judicial charter were done concurrently with revisions of the code of academic integrity and the guidelines on open expression over the last two years. The three documents were reviewed by an oversight committee for consistency and presented to University Council last week for discussion and action. Each of the three documents that were reviewed are required to be adopted in different ways. The Guidelines on Open Expression must be adopted by President Sheldon Hackney. They are currently being reviewed by the Committee on Open Expression. The Code of Academic Integrity must be voted on by the faculty of each school, while the Judicial Charter can be accepted by the dean of each school in the manner that school has deemed correct.

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