The Class of 2012 matriculated this year to an updated version of the Duke Community Standard.
Every year, the Office of Judicial Affairs publishes a revised guide based on feedback from the previous year. The current version boasts changes ranging from a more stringent alcohol policy to an altered disciplinary process. Students were alerted to the release of the update via e-mail Wednesday.
Stephen Bryan, director of Judicial Affairs and associate dean of students, said the additions to the code were meant to clarify previously vague policies.
The DCS now explicitly states that groups are in violation of the alcohol policy if they provide alcohol to students under the age of 21, and modified the entry on jurisdiction to note that the University reserves the right to respond to any allegation of misconduct, on- or off-campus.
"This year's edition has no major changes," Bryan said. "We clarified some things that have been a source of confusion for students, so we tried to offer helpful guides to students about policy procedures."
Bryan said he thought the most significant change to this year's DCS guide is the newly implemented procedure for contested outcomes of disciplinary action.
Previously, if students were dissatisfied with the result of an administrative hearing, they would send an appeal to the Appellate Board. However, he noted that many of the cases last year were "minor incidents" that did not necessarily require an Appellate Board hearing.
To decrease the volume of lesser cases on the higher board, students can now contest sanctions by taking their case to the Undergraduate Judicial Board. That panel will then weigh the case and make a decision.
"Our expectation is that we'll see fewer appeals because a student will have another venue to go to," Bryan said.
A two-page briefing on noteworthy changes summarizes the policies that were clarified. Among other things, the DCS guide also adds that guests include non-students as well as students, and that those who fail to comply with law enforcement can be subject to University action.
Furthermore, events may not be held during reading periods or finals unless authorized by University officials, and other noise policies were updated to make Central consistent with East and West campuses.
The Standard outlines University policies and community expectations, and students are expected to be familiar and comply with the guidelines.
Senior Toni Helbling, vice chair of the Undergraduate Judicial Board, said the changes are not "earth-shattering" for the Duke community.
"I don't think that the changes in the judicial policy are fundamentally substantial," she said. "They're more clarifying what the policies were intending originally-just going through the complications and making the wording more accurately reflect the intent that was originally there."
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