Short and smart code

Details do matter, but in the new Student Code of Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, simplicity rules.\nThe Bloomington Faculty Council just approved a new, shorter version of the Student Code of Rights and Responsibilities. The code went from a daunting 65 pages to a digestible 15. It still must be approved by the University Faculty Council.\nAny time rules are made more accessible, the campus community will benefit. More people will know, understand and follow the guidelines if they're readily available.\nIt was smart to put the detailed protocol for due process in a separate document. Students who specifically need that information can still find out how their claims will be handled, while students who simply want to be aware of the basic guidelines for student conduct can easily learn the provisions.\nWe applaud the Council's decision to not ban lawyers from advising students during University discipline procedures. While the University procedures are not legal proceedings, a record is kept. In a few cases, those records might be subpoenaed as evidence in a legal hearing. \nIn the interest of fairness for students, they should not have to give potential evidence without the opportunity to be advised. Furthermore, for simplicity's sake, parents or professors, who have law degrees, attending the proceedings will be able to listen or participate without complicating things.\nThe council also adopted a common-sense change to alcohol policy. Under the new rule, students who are 21 or older and live in a residence with a supervisor employed specifically to enforce the rules would be able drink in their residence. Obviously, lots of people who fit this description also live with students under 21 years old, but there would be an adult in charge of making sure the only ones who drink are those 21 and older. While this change must be approved by the dean of students, the faculty council made a savvy alteration.\nStudents who want to drink will always find a way to get alcohol in their bodies, regardless of rules. Under Prohibition, plenty of Americans, young and old, heartily drank dangerous moonshine and other concoctions. \nThis new policy could have several positive ramifications. Many more students might be inclined to stay on-campus and thus use housing facilities to their fullest extent. Juniors and seniors who are considering becoming a resident assistant, but who want to have a glass of wine in their room off-duty, might swell the ranks of experienced students serving as RAs.\nThe University will never be able to control underage drinking as much as it would like, but allowing students of age, under supervision, to drink openly could make their drinking safer, and no one can argue with that result.\nThe new code as a whole seems pragmatic and beneficial to students and to the campus community in its entirety. We hope the University Faculty Council preserves the reasonable length of the new code. Students now have no excuse to be unaware of policies in the code.