Trustees consider admission, conduct policy revisions

Andrew D. Brosig
Posted 1/17/20

he way Eastern Wyoming College deals with admissions and student conduct will be the topic of further discussion by the college’s Board of Trustees.

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Trustees consider admission, conduct policy revisions

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TORRINGTON – The way Eastern Wyoming College deals with admissions and student conduct will be the topic of further discussion by the college’s Board of Trustees.

Roger Humphrey, EWC Vice President for Student Services, told the board of two policy documents his department has been reviewing, with an eye toward making some changes. The plan is to modernize and, in some cases, simplify the policies so they are more applicable to current students.

Work began on the admissions policy about a year ago, Humphrey said. In the process of attempting to edit the policy, it became clear it would be easier to start from scratch, he said.

“We began down the path of trying to edit it, but we decided to just rewrite it,” Humphrey told the trustees on Tuesday. “There were so many pieces we wanted to clarify.

“Currently, students can be admitted to college without an official high school transcript,” he said. “Part of what we want to clarify is what that impact is, in terms of scholarships, placement from an academic side, all of those things in terms of transfer” students.

The current policy was last revised in 2005. The proposed changes would also clarify the college as an “open admissions” institution, Humphrey said. 

“We’re addressing cleaning some of that up, talking about our open admissions policy,” he said. “What we felt trying to start over is to make it more concise, more applicable to what we have.”

Humphrey also reported to the board a proposal to make changes to the current Student Code of Conduct, which also hasn’t been revised since 2005. Part of the changes he’s recommending would include development of administrative rules which could be used if students are believed to have violated the conduct code.

Currently, he said, the code of conduct is written as policy. The difference between policy and administrative rules is policy decisions must be made by the board of trustees. Administrative rules can be addressed at the college administration lever – by the EWC president or other designated administrators – without have to bring together the entire board.

“At student services (the proposal) is two-fold,” Humphrey said. “We’re looking at what would be an overarching policy, but we’re also working through what would be part of student conduct and what would be an administrative rule.

“From conduct to sanctions to grievances to defining sexual harassment – our plan is to sort of give this to you,” he said. “To rework the policy, then bring that back to the board under student conduct.”

The current policy contains what was described as a “laundry list” of prohibited conduct, from hazing to assault to gambling or littering. It also covers things like stealing, plagiarism, cheating and failure to meet financial responsibilities to the college.

The revisions would condense that down to “a shorter list of broader things, versus the laundry list,” Humphrey said. “It’s going to look a lot different than this – the more rules you have, the more rules you don’t enforce. We want to write rules in a broad range and then interpret.”

Trustee Judith Bartman asked how students are made aware of the code of conduct and the fact they’re required to adhere to it.

“I’m curious, running across a couple situations like we’ve talked about here,” Bartman said. “Would it make sense to have this as a document in the admissions packet they sign, so they have – 90 percent won’t bother to look at it, they’d just sign it. But would it be something that would be a benefit to have it in their packets with their signature on?

Humphrey told the board the code of conduct is something that will be addressed during the regular orientation process, particularly with new or first-time students. 

“This is something we spend time on,” he said. “This is one of those blends of policy and administrative rule – there’s a lot of processes and procedures in it. We would like to write more of an administrative rule – something that’s easier to adapt to situations – rather than come back and have to redo a policy.

“We usually have issues with alcohol, curfew violations, behavior,” Humphrey said. “We’d like to deal with it more generally, rather than saying, ‘You broke rule number 27 on page five.’ This is a good start.”