Lack of Concrete Student Handbook Creates Cause for Concern
Cassandra Stec | cmstec@butler.edu
After months of research and inquiry by the Judicial Branch, an executive order was signed into effect by Student Government Association president Will Gigerich on January 12th regarding the student handbook. Executive order 2122-004 centers around “encouraging [Senate] action on the student handbook” as well as suggestions on how to proceed as informed through the Judicial Branch’s inquiry.
Student Body President Will Gigerich, senior criminology major, has noticed the inequity surrounding Butler’s Student Handbook, or lack thereof, since he first became involved in SGA.
“The website has more general themes of conduct and while that is beneficial on a surface level it is difficult when students don’t know what those mean and what falls under those and what doesn’t,” Gigerich said. “Not having that opens the door for abuse of power by the university. And while I am not alleging that that has happened, I think it’s important to say that that is a possibility, and we want to be able to protect students. Not having a handbook opens a door to allow them to do whatever they want.”
While SGA may not be thought of as having the power to begin to foster amendments to Butler’s current student guidelines, according to those same guidelines SGA is able to propose changes to the Vice President of Student Affairs (VPSA). The VPSA can then consult with any University group that may be affected by these changes such as the Appeals Board or SGA.
“In correspondence with the Dean of Students we have been told that essentially they like having these policies broad so they can make them fit whatever circumstance they need in some sort of conduct process,” Gigerich said. “While I understand the value to them, we think it’s problematic if that process can be used punitively against students for reasons they didn’t realize could fall under conduct or truly shouldn’t be conducted but the university feels the need to use that process for those reasons.”
Some of the suggested revisions include conduct related changes such as changing where appeals go, changing the appeals board process, and standardizing consequences, which would include specifying maximum and minimum consequences. Additionally, the recommendations also included having a comprehensive list of rules and procedures that are easily accessible as opposed to the current copy which is only available through multiple series of links on Butler’s website. SGA would also like to advocate for a yearly task on students’ dashboards that would require them to sign and acknowledge the student handbook.
The whole purpose of Executive Order 2122-04 is to enact conversation and changes that would allow for the student handbook to be transparent, accessible, concrete, and written with students in mind rather than the nebulous at-whim rules and processes that are currently extremely difficult to find and interpret.
“Most of the time it is a fairly one sided procedure especially with the appeal board,” Gigerich said. “Not having students in this position is problematic especially when we’re making decisions based off of what a reasonable student would think or believe. If you don’t have a student there, how do you know what a reasonable student thinks or believes? We want to bring more student feedback into it but also bring student perspective into the process.”
Photo Courtesy of Butler Website