The State Board of Higher Education is revising its policy to comply with a new state law regarding student disciplinary proceedings.
In April, Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed Senate Bill 2150 into law, giving students and student organizations the right to an attorney during university disciplinary proceedings excluding instances of academic misconduct.
The draft policy in SBHE meeting documents outlines a student's right to an adviser, right to a written notice of any violations and right to a first and second appeal, among other things.
"The policy will be implementing the law," North Dakota University System Chief of Staff and Ethics Officer Murray Sagsveen said. "That's the bottom line."
Sagsveen said policy changes usually go through an extensive vetting process involving legal counsel and various academic councils that can take up to four months, but this policy is being put on the fast track because of the law's Aug. 1 implementation date.
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"There's no big mystery or scheme to this," Sagsveen said. "It's basically a placeholder so that people can start talking about it and whoever is here can start moving it through the councils and review process."
The SBHE will review the policy's first reading at a meeting today, but the group's subsequent meeting isn't until late September.
"If we don't introduce it now, we may not have a second reading until the end of the year, and who knows, everybody may think the first draft is a great draft, but that doesn't usually happen," Sagsveen said.
The policy change document in SBHE meeting materials states NDUS staff haven't been able to "fully engage in the drafting process," which Sagsveen said is because it's unknown who will deal with this policy change as the the system's legal counsel is transferred to the state attorney general's office, which is also the result of new legislation.
Sagsveen himself will be finished in his capacity as chief of staff July 31, as he planned to serve outgoing Interim Chancellor Larry Skogen until June 30 but was asked by incoming Chancellor Mark Hagerott to remain in the position for an additional month to assist in his transition.
"Basically, what I'm saying is that I won't be around, I won't be shepherding this, so how ever it may look, I don't know because I don't know who will be involved with it and I don't know how long it would take," Sagsveen said.
The SBHE meeting at 8:30 a.m. today is open to the public via live video stream at bit.ly/1K7Gk6m.
