University of Utah trustees have approved a new faculty code of conduct but will reconsider a provision removing students from the committee that investigates complaints against faculty.
The board of trustees allowed the code to take effect on Monday but ordered the Faculty Senate to provide more information on why students should not be represented on the Faculty Hearing Committee.The faculty hearing provision will be taken up again at the November board meeting.
Under the old code, that committee was composed of nine faculty members and six students. Under the revised code, it would have nine faculty members and no students.
"This will cut out an important avenue for the students and raises a question as to what input students should have," said Jeff Casper, student body president and a member of the board of trustees.
Trustee Reed Searle said he does not understand why students, who are affected by faculty misconduct, should not have a say in judging it.
Plagiarism, sexual harassment, theft and incompetence are examples of misconduct.
Bruce Landesman, a professor who helped lead the effort to revise the code, said he and his colleagues overwhelmingly voted to exclude students from the committee.
If accused of violating the rules in the code, professors, like criminal defendants, ought to have the right to be judged "by their peers," Landesman said.
Other benefits cited for a faculty-only hearing body would be an improved "institutional memory" of events and a better assurance of confidentiality.
Board chairman Jim Jardine, a lawyer, said the faculty may be analogous to the Utah State Bar, which has sought to improve its image by including nonlawyers on its disciplinary hearing committee.