Staff from the Division of Student Life provided the Associated Students of Madison members the opportunity to change how the UW-System addresses sexual assault Wednesday.
The staff met with ASM Coordinating Council to explain the addition of a subsection to the student code of conduct.
A UW-System committee is proposing numerous changes to Chapter 17, which states the System’s protocol for both academic and non-academic misconduct. UW-Madison previously formed its own misconduct procedures in August.
Students suggest adding three categories to the definition of misconduct of Chapter 17 to the faculty, including dating violence, domestic violence and sexual assault.
Currently, respondents can appeal decisions made by the misconduct panel, but complainants cannot. The Division of Student Life proposed a change so both the complainant and respondent have equal rights when challenging or appealing to the misconduct panel.
The proposed addition to Chapter 17 would also ensure that both the complainant and respondent have the choice to discuss the offense with either the misconduct panel or to keep it between the police department.
Additionally, both students and Division of Student Life staff propose keeping at least one student on the misconduct panel, as other universities in the UW System want to remove student participation altogether, ASM Chair Gen Carter said.
“Currently the sexual misconduct panels are made up of three people, and one of them is a student,” Carter said. “I think what our administration has been advocating for, and certainly what students have been advocating for, is to keep it so that there would be a student on these misconduct panels.”
The Division of Student Life representatives recognized the potential backlash to some of these potential changes.
“There’s been consistency with one person in their sanctioning. When we go to the panels, even though [the students] are trained, they are average people from our campus community, and they could make decisions all over the board,” Assistant Dean of Students Tonya Schmidt said.
Council members raised potential issues of privacy, as students involved in sexual misconduct cases may worry about details of the incident spreading if students sit on the panel.
However, Schmidt said the required annual training for panel members could negate this problem.
UW-Madison will gather responses from students regarding the changes to Chapter 17 and report back to the UW System, where it would be approved by the Board of Regents.
“Being codified by law adds an element of gravitas to it, but it also makes changing it an act of the legislature,” Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp said. “So, changes that are proposed have a complex process to go through.”
Correction: Several language changes were made to reflect that changes to the policy originated from the UW-System, rather than UW-Madison. We regret this error.
