New policies were added to the student code of conduct over the summer.
Announced in two separate emails from Kathleen Dougherty, assistant dean of students, sent out to students, one for off-campus/ residents of Keene and one for those who live on campus.
Across both emails, it outlined changes regarding fake IDs, vandalism/damage of cameras and what happens when a student is present during a code of conduct violation
For students who live offcampus, if the Keene Police Department (KPD) issues a noise violation, students will be sent a hearing notice requesting that they speak with someone from the Community Standards Office. In an interview with Dougherty about the changes made to the code of conduct she said she doesn’t want students to have to interact with KPD again because of a violation.
“I think some conversation about you know, how did you end up in a position you did, will help them mitigate getting an additional violation,” she said. Previously, students who received a noise violation from the department were just sent a letter “to be a good neighbor”, but she said she found that the letter was not really an effective way to prevent the violation from happening again.
Furthermore, the email states if students receive a hearing notice because of a noise violation, if found responsible, they could be put on conduct probation for an amount of time “reflective of the disturbance created.”
The updated language surrounding the ‘Complicity/In the Presence of’ policy, now would make the student responsible for either removing themselves from a situation where a policy violation is occurring, encouraging the party participating in the policy violation to stop or report the violation.
Dougherty said, ‘Complicity/ In the Presence of’ has been in the code of conduct, but the new language would make this a code violation.
While students are documented by Community Living when found in the presence of a code violation, if they aren’t participating they are found not responsible.
“We just wanted to make sure that students know like, we don’t really want you to be in this space, either,” she said. “It’s not really in your best interest.”
Dougherty noted this policy does not cancel out the ‘good samaritans’ policy.
As for Fake IDs, they are now a part of the violation for alcohol or other drugs, in addition to forgery. She said she found that students were often confused about getting a forgery violation when being caught with a fake ID. It was added to the alcohol and other drugs policy because if a student has a fake ID it is more than likely being used to get something you are not supposed to get while under 21 years of age.
If a student vandalizes or damages a camera, Dougherty said the language surrounding that was a bit too restrictive.
She said even if a camera was slightly tampered with the school still might be required to have the vendor come to check on the camera, which costs the college money. The new language surrounding this could make the student who tampered with the camera as responsible for paying the bill.
Tim Bruns can be contacted at
tbruns@kscequinox.com
