Senate amends bylaw 31 after eight years of review
By Nick Olynyk
News Reporter
November 28, 2007
The University of Windsor’s Senate Committee implemented a new bylaw to its charter on Nov. 6.
Formerly part of bylaw 31, bylaw 33 will strictly handle student rights and freedoms including student participation in university government, the University’s recognition of the fundamental freedoms proscribed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, confidentiality and disclosure policies, and preservation of records.
The wording of the fundamental freedoms and corresponding paragraphs have been combined and more tightly written. The provisions for preservation of records under bylaw 33 now dictates that, “records of allegations of misconduct and disposition and sanction (if any) shall be preserved [following a student’s graduation or final departure from the University].
Under bylaw 31, the preservation or records simply mandated that, “student disciplinary records resulting from actions taken under this Bylaw, other than those contained in student transcripts, shall not be preserved beyond one year following graduation.” It did not address records of allegations of misconduct.
The bylaw has undergone constant revisions over the past eight years, having drafts being repeatedly tabled.
Since its adoption in 1969, bylaw 31 encompassed the separate distinctions of student participation in university government, freedom of discussion, student media, right of assembly, and extensive respect to student confidentiality including race, religion, financial and medical matters, and academic records.
“We took each of [the bylaw sections] because they were somewhat distinct and turned them into three different bylaws,” said law professor Brian Mazer, chair of the Bylaw Drafting Committee. “In the process of doing that, we also proposed changes and amendments to those bylaws based upon the feedback of the broad university community including the student government.”
“Bylaw 31 was really compressed, there was a lot of things all in one,” said University of Windsor Student Alliance vice president, Zach Cranny. All the university’s bylaws have been receiving a run through in recent months as part of an ongoing effort to adapt them to “better suit the University’s climate,” said Cranny.
Currently, bylaw 31, which has been amended eight times since inception, still holds all information pertaining to bylaw 33. Bylaw 31’s rules, however, will only be enforced through bylaw 33.
Although the creation of bylaw 33 bears significance to the Senate’s charter, it will not be the last one.
In coming months, the creation of another bylaw, bylaw 32, will provide another angle in the constitution, once implemented. The proposed code will function to control procedural irregularities with the teaching and testing, and the evaluation process.
Additionally, bylaw 31 will continue to handle student affairs and integrity as it had in prior instances. Both bylaws have been drafted but still need to pass a Senate vote. “They will not be implemented until we have a structure in place in the Senate Secretariat to process all the information, and have received the documentation and do the kinds of things they need to do to keep track of everything that is going on,” said Mazer, adding there is no set date for a vote at this time.
Students-at-large have played a role in drafting of these protection and freedom bylaws. Drafting organizers have utilized the option of maintaining a student position on the drafting.
“The most important thing is that we will have a fair and balanced process as we have had, but in a way that will provide for both the protection [of] student rights and the opportunity to properly prepare a case, and to have these matters dealt with in as most expeditious as fashion as possible because delay is not in anyone’s interest in the long term,” commented Mazer.
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