Student Association : Academic integrity bill passes with no opposition
Eugene Law speaks during the Student Association meeting Tuesday in Maxwell Auditorium. Law was elected as parlementarian during the meeting. Law is also the SA representative for State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
A bill supporting the creation of an Academic Integrity Council at Syracuse University was unanimously passed Tuesday night at Student Association’s second meeting of the semester.
Bonnie Kong, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, presented the bill entitled ‘Recommendation for the Creation of a Student Academic Integrity Council’ to SA at Tuesday’s meeting held at 7:30 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium.
The bill, passed 17-0 by the SA representatives, states that SA recommends the creation of an Academic Integrity Council at the university. This council would be made of student representatives from the nine undergraduate schools.
Now that the motion has passed the SA vote, the next step is to get it approved by the University Senate, Kong said. She has been working with Gary Pavela, the director of the Academic Integrity Office, to decide a structure for the council.
Kong said she believes student input in academic integrity is important because ‘students can relate to other students, their peers, better than to faculty members.’
At SU, there is not a direct way for students to protect or promote academic integrity, the bill stated. The Academic Integrity Office is run by a few administrators and there is virtually no student representation, Kong said.
In the 2009-10 academic year, three-quarters of students that made academic offenses received a passing grade in the course where the offense occurred, according to the bill. The motion also stated that Princeton University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Maryland have influential student honor councils already in place.
Later in the meeting, SA Assemblymember Eugene Law, who represents the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, was elected to the office of parliamentarian. Of the 17 representatives present at the meeting, 12 voted in favor of Law and five were opposed.
Law said he wanted the position of parliamentarian because he had experience with the SA constitution and its codes, as he held the position for one semester last fall and has been an ESF representative in SA for two and a half years. Before being elected, Law said he did not want to change any codes because he does not believe there is anything wrong with them and also said SA already runs well. Law said he would also update the codes online so everyone would have access to the most recent updates.
In other business:
* On Sept. 2, the Finance Board was introduced to nine bills for the special programming designations. It was the responsibility of the board to decide whether or not to fund the proposed activities with the leftover budget allowances. Jeff Rickert, SA comptroller, said the designations are decided on by the Finance Board by consulting the SA constitutional codes and several other factors. Of the nine applications for special programming, only two were granted funds.
* The Lambda Pi Chi Yo Soy Latina program was granted $195 toward its program and the Water Polo club team’s request of $1,848 was fully funded.
* SA approved the Finance Board’s recommendations to not grant funds to the last seven applications on the grounds that the board does not believe the programs comply with finance codes. Kappa Alpha Psi was denied $600 for its leadership conference, $600 for undergraduate dues, and $1,200 for a Centennial Celebration National Dance party. Alpha Kappa Alpha was denied a request of $1,150 for a Skee Week outing. The National Pan-Hellenic Council was denied two requests, each for more than $2,000. Latino Undergraduates Creating History in America was denied $1,167.25 for an event called Platanos y Collard Greens.
Published on September 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm
