BFC changes student rights procedures

In what were primarily landslide votes, the Bloomington Faculty Council voted Tuesday on issues of student rights procedures, drop/add fees for graduate students and changes to religious policies.

The council voted to levy fees for graduate students who switch courses up until the second week of the semester.

After that, students will face regular charges, members of the council said. This decision came about because the council felt that doing so would have a positive affect on the stabilization of the course schedule.

In regard to religious policies, the council provided a better outline for the procedure for students whose academics interfere with their religious commitments. The decisions provide for a clearer explanations of what students need to do to notify professors and proper academic authorities.  

A progress report of the general education initiative was also given by the co-chairs of the general education program, Russell Hanson and Barbara Bichelmeyer. Out of 1,313 courses, 719 have been approved thus far.

Policies for promotion and tenure procedure are also set for adoption in the University. However, IU-Bloomington already practices these procedures for the most part, and they will be proposed for IU regional campuses, officials said.

Issues of students’ rights have moved from under the responsibilities of the dean of faculty – a position that no longer exists – to Thomas Gieryn, vice provost of academic and faculty.

“This is important for students because it settles the appeal process of students who are convicted of academic misconduct,” Gieryn said.

Many of the issues that were settled have been in discussion for some time because of the heavy attention paid on proposed issues.

“It doesn’t sound very exciting until you are a student who has been accused by faculty member of plagiarism, and you know you didn’t do it,” Gieryn said. “Those policies protect you as a student.”