The Brown & White

Dean of Students Christopher Mulvihill announced pending changes to the code of conduct regarding academic dishonesty cases at a Student Senate meeting on Feb. 12.

As it stands now, there are no specified guidelines in the code of conduct for academic dishonest cases.

The changes Mulvilhill and the student conduct office hopes to make will affect students charged with plagiarism, cheating, forgery and other academic sanctions.

In the revised code of conduct, a first offense is subject to a minimum of disciplinary probation for one full semester and an F in the related course, Mulvihill said.

A second offense or a very serious first offense is subject to a minimum of disciplinary suspension for four full semesters and an F in the related course. Disciplinary probation increases the likelihood of disciplinary suspension on an individual's second offense, Mulvilhill said.

These sanctions are determined by a panel from the student conduct office. However, the panel's decisions on punishment are not limited to these guidelines, rather the guidelines serve as recommendations for sanctions.

"By publishing this new code of conduct, we mainly hope to make it a larger deterrent to students," Mulvihill said. "But they are still just guidelines and can be changed on a case by case basis."

Mulvihill wanted to get feedback from the Senate as to whether they would be satisfied with this change in the code of conduct because students are the people most affected by the changes.

"I think these sanctions are pretty fair," Senator Jordan Giallanzo, '10, said. "Four semesters of disciplinary suspension is severe, but that is after a second offense and is therefore well-deserved."

There will be a meeting with all Lehigh faculty in May regarding the pending change to the code of conduct and two representatives from the Senate will be present to discuss it with the faculty.

Senate Vice President Laura Sobol, '08, also announced at the meeting that the elections committee appointed two new senators, Tara Von Shepherd and Eric Twombly, '08.

The next senate event, "Snacks with Senate," will take place on Feb. 26 at Lamberton Hall at 4:30 p.m. The Senate will provide food and will offer students the chance to informally talk with the senators.