Non-academic discipline

As recently reported by The Journal, the Board of Trustees announced on Sept. 18 that an interim protocol will replace its current non-academic misconduct system while an advisory committee conducts a review of the system as a whole.

However, there’s no mention of the review in any agenda topic. The only place the issue is brought up is within each of the reports regularly presented to the Board by student representatives — Rector Mike Young, AMS and SGPS.

“I wanted to briefly address the ongoing NAD discussions we’ve been having over the past few months (for some) and few weeks (for others),” Young wrote in his report.

“As you will all know by now, I have concerns about the direction that we have taken … I am disappointed in some of the outcomes of our discussions, but I am eager to look ahead to what we are able to accomplish collaboratively. I trust that students will not only be included in the process moving forward, but that they will be granted access to shape and inform the system that we build.”

A report drafted by the AMS executive also addresses concerns about student input throughout the process.

“We support efforts to improve non-academic discipline to mitigate risk but also to ensure that the principles behind our restorative justice process is preserved,” the AMS report stated.

However, Chris Cochrane, president of the SGPS, stated his full support of the Board’s oversight of the issue.

“This issue and its resolution are ultimately at the Board’s discretion,” he wrote in his report.

The report stated that the SGPS executive stands by “the comments made by our Vice-President (Professional) Mark Asfar to the Audit and Risk Committee”, although the comments he made weren’t stated in the report.

“We trust the judgment of the Board and offer ourselves as necessary to assist in any additional consultation as implementation moves forward. This is an opportunity to strengthen the Queen’s community and campus environment, and we put our full trust in the Board,” Cochrane wrote.