Earlier this semester, the Wichita State Student Senate passed a resolution in support of a policy proposal that would establish a non-academic misconduct transcript notation.

The purpose of the resolution was to start a greater dialogue with the Kansas Board of Regents regarding transfer students who leave an institution because of non-academic misconduct. Our student government is working alongside six other student governments in Kansas to ensure this discussion is continued at the state level.

The specific language of our proposal is: “A student who has been suspended or expelled for non-academic misconduct is prohibited from enrolling at any Regents institution during the period of such suspension or expulsion without the prior written approval of both the chief student affairs officer at the institution from which the student was suspended or expelled and that person’s counterpart at the institution at which the student wishes to enroll.”

The policy is specifically focused on severe conduct violations that result in suspension or expulsion. The concept is best understood with an example. Imagine a student was suspended or expelled from WSU for committing sexual assault, and instead of fulfilling their conduct sanctions at WSU, they transferred to another Kansas university. There is no policy that addresses such a situation, and we would like that to change.

Creating this new policy would facilitate a conversation between both schools to ensure that the student in question fulfilled his or her conduct requirements before being able to transfer.

The idea is not to brand the student’s record for previous violations, but to guarantee transparency and complete understanding about the student’s reason for transferring.

The idea of this policy is not new. A member of the United States House of Representatives has publicly stated that they intend to introduce a bill in Congress to address the issue.

Articles reference the abduction and murder of student Hannah Graham at the University of Virginia last September. The assailant had a previous record of rape at two universities in Virginia before his crime at UVA. The goal of our policy proposal is to guarantee that such events could never happen as a result of the required due diligence.

At the next Board of Regents meeting on March 11, I will join my fellow student body presidents in presenting our resolutions and advocating for their consideration of the new policy. While we understand a possible change will take time, we hope university administrators will be receptive of our efforts on the topic.

If you have any questions or recommendations for our efforts moving forward, please contact me at [email protected] or 978-7060.