Council approves code revisions

The Bloomington Faculty Council approved revisions to the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct for the first time in seven years at a meeting Tuesday in Ballantine Hall.\nThe revised code, along with changes suggested by the seven other IU campuses, will now go to a first reading by the University Faculties Council March 9.\nThe BFC approved the code 28-1, with 14 members abstaining.\nAmendments to the code proposed after the first reading last month included clarifications of the harassment policies and a rule explicitly against intimidating or threatening those involved in the judicial policy.\nSome on the council were worried students are to be held accountable for their "verbal conduct" by the new policy.\n"If someone finds speech offensive, that doesn't mean it's harassment," business Professor Eric Rasmusen said.\nAssociate Professor of Telecommunications Herb Terry took issue with the 96-page code itself by presenting a copy of the University of Michigan's seven-page student code.\n"We have created a monster here in terms of unintelligibility," Terry said. "(The Michigan code) does everything ours does, but it doesn't require a lawyer to interpret it. It is written with style in words an undergraduate can understand. I seriously hope the draft committee takes that into consideration."\nThe BFC also approved a resolution from the library committee regarding the rising cost of serials and databases.\nThe resolution encourages faculty to support publishers that allow open access and charge lower prices.\nSome periodicals, such as "The Journal of Phonetics," have raised their prices by more than 200 percent in a year, said Chair of the Library Committee Harold Ogren.\nHe also said IU has received more funding than other schools to pay for the rising cost of these publications but more long-term solutions, such as the resolution, are needed.\nDean of Graduate Studies John Slattery supported the idea of faculty publishing for open access journals.\n"Publishers hold us hostage to our pecking order of prestige," Slattery said. "What matters is the quality of work, not the journal that publishes it. I think we need to take that card from the publishers. We have to radically change our strategy."\nThe BFC was also scheduled to hear an update on the peer-to-peer file sharing policy but was unable to because of time constraints.\nThat policy will be reviewed at the next meeting, scheduled for March 23.\n-- Contact senior writer Chris Freiberg at wfreiber@indiana.edu.