EDITORIAL: "Free the Files! Free the Files!"

If the University finds you guilty of rape, there's a good chance you will be expelled. That's the loud and clear message sent by two University judicial cases that we reported on last week: the alleged rape at Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and the lawsuit filed against the University in the alleged Mark Wallace cheating case. (We say alleged in both cases both were resolved by the University, not the court system.) Compare the message that these real offenses -- along with their very real punishments -- send to potential offenders, compared to the message sent by University policies. In the case of cheating and other academic integrity offenses, the University "Code of Academic Integrity" specifies that: "The penalties that [the University] may impose include the following: warning, reprimand, withdrawal of certain privileges, limited probation for not more than one year, and a period of mandatory service to the University community. The penalties [available to] the dean of a student's school include the following: disciplinary probation for a fixed period of time, disciplinary probation for an indefinite period, suspension for not longer than two years, indefinite suspension without the automatic right to readmission, and expulsion." The knowledge that cheating has gotten students suspended in the past is a much better deterrent than going through life thinking that cheating might only result in a warning or the "withdrawal of certain privileges." What privileges, incidentally? Furthermore, the vast majority of University judicial settlements are reached in private. Compare that to criminal courts, where public disclosure of crimes is nonnegotiable. While secrecy spares violators embarassment and keeps the University's dirty laundry private, it keeps the policy-abiding student body in the dark as to whether offenders are being adequately and fairly punished. It also fails to deter potential offenders who might prey on those policy-abiding students. The people the policies are meant to serve lose out. It is understandable that University policies must be broad and flexible, students need examples of how they are applied in order to give them teeth. Public disclosure of punishments serves as a deterrent in the present, and a precedent for the future. The University needs to be more forthcoming with information on the punishments it doles out. Justice may be blind, but it shouldn't be stupid.

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