Judicial Affairs' policies need more student input

Last year, Duke Student Government advocated a series of amendments to Duke's judicial process. These changes included entitling a student to more time between the start of his or her investigation and hearing and additional opportunities to have his or her case reheard.

This fall, the Office of Judicial Affairs released its Duke Community Standard in Practice: A Guide for Undergraduate Students for the 2008-2009 school year, which included both of DSG's proposed changes. With these changes in place, an accused student must be notified of his or her hearing at least five days in advance (rather than two) and is entitled to have his or her case reheard by the Undergraduate Judicial Board.

These much-needed changes to the DCS Guide signify the University's movement toward a fairer judicial system, but these alone are not enough. And though students can reasonably expect to benefit from these changes, the Office of Judicial Affairs should have solicited student participation in the conversations that brought them about. Instead, insiders of the Office of Judicial Affairs discussed the changes at a time when few students were on campus to comment and adopted them via a process that lacks transparency and student involvement.

In the future, Judicial Affairs should adopt a formal process for amending its policies and procedures, in which student opinions are actively sought out and closely listened to. The adoption of this new amendment process is just one of many reforms that must be implemented and DSG will continue to prioritize this issue until a more just judicial process is put in place. The DCS Guide represents a contract between Duke students and the University. It is only fair that students be consulted if the terms of this contract are going to change.

Lauren Maisel

Trinity '09

Vice President of Student Affairs, DSG