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Students deliberate conduct violations on campus
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PAGE 3 • THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
Students deliberate conduct violations on campus
Abbie Davies-Cutting
Correspondent
For NC State students, the Student Code of Conduct acts as the governing document of the explicit rules student must follow while on campus. The document outlines all possible violations along with sanctions that display consequences that will likely occur if a student is found responsible. For most students at NC State, this is where their knowledge of the code concludes; however, for the roughly 20 active members serving on NC State’s Student Conduct Board, this document is so much more.
Students who serve on the board have the unique opportunity to hear, deliberate and rule on real cases that pass through the conduct office that could result in suspension or expulsion from the UNC System. Jodi Svetaketu, a third-year studying Spanish and former chief justice, explained how the Student Conduct Board operates.
“If a student is accused of a violation, anything that’s outlined in the Student Code of Conduct, they have the option of picking a conduct board hearing, which is where they present their case,” Svetaketu said. “We get to decide based on the evidence and statements we hear from the student and the other party whether they are responsible or not responsible, and if they are responsible, we decide what sanctions should go with that.”
If a student decides to forgo an administrative hearing and instead be heard by the Student Board of Conduct, they can expect one of two things, depending on whether their violation is academic or non-academic. Kiera Jonson, a fourthyear studying microbiology and student body chief justice, discussed the similarities and differences between each type of case.
“Both hearings are comprised of four board members and the presiding officer, who is generally the student chief justice, but you could also just have a trained presiding officer,” Jonson said. “In academic cases, you would have two student conduct board members and two faculty conduct members, and for non-academic we will have four student conduct board members and the presiding officer.”
The board’s primary responsibility during hearings is to determine if a violation occurred, determine who is responsible and decide appropriate sanctions for that violation.
“We ask questions that are pertinent to the specific instance at hand, so we just want to find out did a violation occur and did that student commit that violation,” Jonson said. “After fact finding, we will deliberate and determine responsibility, and then they will come back and do sanctioning if they are found responsible.”
Both Svetaketu and Jonson maintain that offering the option of a student-led “jury of peers” sends a powerful message to students who violate the code and to the NC State community as a whole.
“Since we’re not faculty, we’re not administration or anything, we’re students just like them, it kind of helps us to see their side, especially when questioning,” Svetaketu said. “We can see the importance of being unbiased.”
Jonson said she is proud of the impact she has been able to make on her community through serving on the Student Conduct Board.
“I think it’s important that you have that support from the community to say, ‘We are students and we think the code is important,’ and so we are going to do our part to make sure it’s being applied fairly,” Jonson said.
PARKER MCLAWHORN/TECHNICIAN The Office of Student Conduct is located in Clark Hall, which is next to Reynolds Coliseum.
ASG advocates for students statewide
Will Thornhill
Correspondent
The UNC Association of Student Governments (ASG) is an organization that has been representing college students in the state of North Carolina for 48 years. It represents all 17 UNC System campuses across North Carolina.
The role of the ASG president is to be the voice for college students at the UNC Board of Governors. The newly elected president for the 2019-2020 school year is Adam Schmidt, a third-year studying civil engineering and former NC State Student Senate president.
“There is definitely an advocacy piece, because NC State is a part of the UNC System, and so there are policies set at the UNC System level,” Schmidt said. “Recommendations from the NC State campus sometimes have to go up to the Board of Governors level; things like student fees and tuition increase recommendations.”
Schmidt was sworn in at the Association of Student Governments business meeting on April 13 at North Carolina Central University.
“As the president of the Association of Student Governments, I’ll be the student member of the UNC Board of Governors,” Schmidt said. “I will work a lot with student body presidents to push out information that is happening at the Board of Governors level and listen to issues that are occurring on their campuses.”
ASG has a strategic plan which includes three steps: establish a reputation of professional, transparent and accountable leadership, facilitate development and collaboration for and between campus student governments, and implement lasting programs and initiatives that will serve the students of the UNC System.
The ASG advisor is Kim Mitchell, who works at the UNC System office and acts as a leader to help the students in ASG in different roles.
“The key word is ‘help’ them run the organization,” Mitchell said. “I deal with a lot of logistics, as far as helping organize the meetings and the logistics of the students being able to travel. On the back end, I do all of the paperwork in order to get the students reimbursed.”
During the year, ASG legislation tackled
News PAGE 4 • THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019 TECHNICIAN Walk the Moon finishes off the year at Wolfstock
LDOC FESTIVITIES RETURN TO STAFFORD COMMONS, FREE OF CHARGE
Alex Berenfeld
Staff Writer
As the semester nears, students prepare for exams, library rooms are frantically reserved and the stress begins to build. To combat these stressful days, NC State’s University Activities Board (UAB) will host the annual LDOC Festival and Wolfstock on Stafford Commons and Wolf Plaza on Friday, April 26.
The LDOC Festival, which is hosted by the UAB Leisure and Recreation Committee, takes place throughout the day, and in the night it transitions into the Wolfstock concert, which is hosted by the Concerts and Entertainment Committee.
The LDOC Festival will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wolfstock will begin at 6:30 p.m. with an opening performance from DJ Trellz followed by Walk the Moon, who will come on at 8:30 p.m. as the headliner.
Bri Murphy, a second-year studying genetics and UAB concerts and entertainment chair, said that UAB was able to pursue a more prevalent artist such as Walk the Moon because of the other concerts that did not end up happening this past school year.
“UAB gets all of its money from student fees,” Murphy said. “We have a budget that allots a certain amount of money to the concert and our other events. Basically, the money is split up between the committees and the different events throughout the whole year. We have a slightly larger budget just because of the concerts and things that have happened this year, so we have a bigger artist than we usually have.”
One thing Murphy highlighted about Wolfstock was its free admission for NC State students.
“It is free for everyone, which I think is something really awesome that UAB does because it is accessible to anyone and no one has to pay to come,” Murphy said. “[Wolfstock] really just brings the NC State community together, which is what we always hope for through our events.”
According to UAB Leisure and Recreation Chair Anna Long, a third-year studying communication, there will be various food trucks located on Wolf Plaza throughout the day. These food trucks include Belgian Waffle Crafters (8:45-10:45 a.m.), Bourbon Street Beignets (9:00-11:30 a.m.), Kona Ice (11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.), Taco Grande (12:30-3:00 p.m.) and Woodpile BBQ (12:30-3:00 p.m.).
NICK FAULKNER/ARCHIVE Beach balls fly throughout the crowd as Lawrence the Band plays at Wolfstock on April 28, 2017 on Stafford Commons.
GOVERNMENT
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issues that have been impacting students on several UNC System campuses.
“The legislation that was brought up was everything from transgender housing to like this past meeting, there was a piece of legislation brought from Western Carolina that was looking at the need to have psychiatrists available to students on campus,” Mitchell said.
ASG can also act as a resource for students that are seeking funding for different projects, as they can request financial grants of up to $3,000 on their website.
Students are likely to receive funding if their projects coincide with one of ASG’s five missions: campus innovation, diversity initiatives, voter mobilization, sustainability projects or UNC System advocacy. These grant requests are reviewed at their monthly business meetings.
“There’s several thousand dollars the association gives out to students who submit grant requests from across the system, and NC State has submitted a number this year,’’ Schmidt said. “They range from helping student groups put on their events to making capital improvements on campus to kind of everything in between.”
Additionally, an important initiative for ASG has been voter mobilization. They not only encourage students to vote in local and national elections, but to be involved and informed in politics that affect them as college students and citizens in the community.
On their website, ASG has links that allow students to register to vote and list students’ nearest polling locations.
ASG has provided opportunities for college students to drive initiatives on campuses throughout N.C. and will continue to live out its mission as a studentled organization.
DAVID TRACEY/ARCHIVE Student Senate President Pro Tempore Adam Schmidt speaks during the Student Senate meeting on March 14, 2018 at Talley Student Union. The meeting addressed topics such as the Carmichael Gymnasium renovations, 2-Factor Authentication and a discussion on student safety led by Major Ian Kendrick of the NCSU Police Department.
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PAGE 5 • THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
Engineering Enhancement Fee: driving the college’s success
Jean Brannum
Correspondent
Within the university’s $88 million in revenue from student fees, there are fees that are accumulated by College of Engineering students that total $1,500 per student and go toward programs that create engineering-specific opportunities.
The COE Program Enhancement Fee is necessary for making NC State a toptier engineering school, according to the dean of the College of Engineering, Louis Martin-Vega.
Martin-Vega clarified that the fee is significantly more affordable, than what is demanded from students at other esteemed engineering schools.
“There’s what you get in the classroom, and then there’s all the other things that you can get across the university in terms of Study Abroad, internships, co-ops, research in labs and things like that.” Martin-Vega said. “But we also saw that some of our peer institutions had fees that we didn’t want to go there. If you’re an engineering student at the University of Illinois, in addition to paying an in-state tuition that is probably two and a half [times] higher than ours, you’re going to pay a $6,000 fee. We’re not going to go there either.”
Martin-Vega added that NC State compares their engineering school to other top engineering schools such as Purdue, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and Penn State.
Martin-Vega also said that the fee does go back to the students through research jobs on campus and provides a better postgraduate job outlook.
Sam Brohaugh, a third-year studying civil engineering and Student Government senator, said he used to criticize the fee until he knew the reasoning behind it. “As a student who didn’t fully understand the fee, it was more something I was concerned about paying,” Brohaugh said. “I don’t want to pay a fee that I don’t really understand where it goes towards or what it’s used for, anything like that. But after [Martin-Vega explained] that that’s what pays for the research opportunities, the high-impact experiences that really set our engineering program apart from others — those additional experiences outside of class are really what separates the okay engineering programs from the excellent programs that employers are really striving to hire students for.”
However, Brohaugh said there needs to be more transparency about the fee and that students need to know how to take advantage of the benefits the fee provides.
“One of my goals as a senator in the College of Engineering is to continue to work closely with the dean’s office to make this issue transparent and accessible to students,” Brohaugh said. “A lot of the research opportunities and internships provided by the College of Engineering work to make sure that every engineering student has equal opportunity to enhance their experience here at the College of Engineering.”
The College of Engineering’s webpage answers common questions about the fee and explains where the funds are allocated. In addition, Student Government hosted a budget town hall with Mike Mullen, vice chancellor and dean of academic and student affairs, and other faculty members to answer questions and concerns about the fee. Martin-Vega agreed that he wanted to help students take advantage of the opportunities the fee allows.
“We try to be responsive, and we’ve made ourselves available to meetings with student organizations,” Martin-Vega said. “The bottom line is that we’re open. I’ve told [Student Government], ‘Invite us anytime.’ We will certainly accommodate our time to be there.”
While the fee went into effect in fall 2015, Martin-Vega said that he has not seen a decrease in enrollment in the engineering program, and that it does not seem to deter students from attending NC State for engineering.
“We’re very proud of where this college is,” Martin-Vega said. “We are the 12th highest-ranked public college of engineering in the country … We’re proud of that, but the reason we’re proud of it is we think it provides our students a tremendous advantage.”
SARAH HARDISON/ARCHIVE
