Student conduct was a major discussion during the Academic Senate meeting before presenting the 2018 Adjunct Faculty Award on Dec. 4.
The Academic Senate read through a revision of Board Policy 5500 which is the Standards of Student Conduct.
The revision intends on making the policies of student conduct more clear for faculty and students alike.
Vice President of Educational Policies Darcie McClelland said she believes clarifying the policies of conduct is “protective to students.”
“If policies are not clear and you don’t understand what is allowed and what isn’t allowed then you can’t make sure you’re having proper conduct,” McClelland said after the meeting.
All board policies and administrative procedures can be found on the El Camino College website under the Board of Trustees page.
The last time BP 5500 was revised was on June 15, 2015.
“About 60 percent of the updated policies have been about technology,” EC Vice President of Student Services Ross Miyashiro said.
According to the revised BP 5500 text, the rules of student conduct apply to students on the district-owned property, facilities, and electronic media.
Miyashiro was asked during the meeting to clarify if the policy affects online conduct done through an IP address on campus.
“Let’s say someone puts up a nazi website using an IP address, they would have to go through the discipline process,” Miyashiro said after the meeting. “It’s against the values of El Camino College.”
All policies and procedures go through a collegial consultation process and the Academic Senate was the first to read the revised BP 5500.
Administrative Procedure 5520 which is the disciplinary aspect of the student conduct policy will be discussed in the next Academic Senate meeting.
After discussion of policies and procedures ended, the Academic Senate enthusiastically transitioned to their award ceremony.
“The Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award was established in 2010 by the Academic Senate to honor exceptional adjunct faculty members who demonstrated the highest level of commitment,” Vice President of Faculty Development Stacey Allen said.
Allen presented the 2018 Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award to art history professor Elizabeth Russell.
Russell thanked her colleagues and said she was “inspired by them every day.”
“Teaching can be lonely as we all know and exhausting and yet I don’t know it’s also so life-giving,” Russell said. “That’s because of the community, the students to faculty; so thank you I’m really appreciative.”
