Judicial Affairs has proposed a new Student Code of Conduct and is looking for your output.

“I had a desire to overhaul the code three years ago,” said Milton Chester, director of judicial affairs at Binghamton University. “I’ve been here for nine years, and this is the first time the Student Code has been overhauled.”

According to Chester, he wanted to create a 21st Century model judicial code for BU.

“We felt that the current code wasn’t student-friendly; it was too rigid,” said Peter Spaet, vice president for academic affairs. “The code is too legalistic. We wanted to make it more toward simple English in that you know what you can’t and can do.”

Chester said he is currently asking for feedback from the campus community about the revised code.

“We’re putting on a ‘roadshow,’” Chester said. “This document impacts our campus community, impacts our students. We want them to be part of the development of this.”

The roadshow will have open meetings on Feb. 10 in the New University Union, on Feb. 19 in Lecture Hall and periodically throughout the month. There will also be meetings in front of the Graduate Student Organization and Off Campus College. There was a meeting in front of the Student Association yesterday.

The history of the Student Code of Conduct, how the new one was created and some of the proposed changes will be discussed during these meetings.

Proposed changes are online at judicialaffairs.binghamton.edu. Comments about the code can be submitted online.

According to Chester, after the feedback process, the comments will go to a committee, and then decisions will be made about the final document, that will then be presented to a committee.

Included in these proposed changes are the issues of transferred culpability and burden of proof.

“Ed Stoner, one of the premier legal minds of higher education law, did an audit of the current code,” Chester said.

A committee of two Judicial Affairs staff members, two Residential Life staff members, two resident assistants, one member of Binghamton’s New York State University Police and one representative from the Student Association used this audit, as well as other student codes from different universities — and their own experience — to formulate the new code.

“We worked two hours every week from February of last year up until the winter break,” Spaet said.

As it now stands, the burden of proof is preponderance of evidence — anything above 50 percent. Next year, the changes will make the burden of proof clear and convincing which “is not as high as reasonable doubt, but higher than preponderance of evidence,” Spaet said.

Also, under the current code, if you are present during a violation you can be charged for it as well. That provision is not included in the current proposal. In the future, only the active participant would be charged.

The process of a hearing has also been changed.

“If you were charged under the new Code of Conduct, you have the chance to speak to student advisers before the meeting to explain the process,” Chester said.

According to Spaet, the Judicial Affairs meeting system will be divided into two branches under the proposal. The intention is to speed up the process, he said.

There will be two levels of charges. For something small, such as a noise violation, there will be only one meeting. For something larger, such as an assault, there will be two or more meetings.

The proposed Student Code will be voted on in May by the Binghamton University Council.

“The council consists of nine gubernatorial appointees elected for five-year terms and one student, myself,” Spaet said.