Dean of the College Lee Pelton released a report on the Undergraduate Judicial Review Committee's final recommendations Monday, which called for only minor adjustments to the College's disciplinary system.
The report issued eight Dartmouth Community Standards of Conduct to replace the current Code of Conduct's 33 regulations, which is published in the Student Handbook.
The report also included recommendations on how to make clear various aspects of the College's judicial system, including a simplification of the language used in the Committee on Standards' hearings.
In a three-page introduction to the report, Pelton pointed out the importance of the new Standards of Conduct.
"These Standards articulate the College's expectation that students are required to conduct themselves in a manner which is consistent with the institutional community's pursuit of its educational objectives," he wrote.
The eight Standards are broader in scope than the Code of Conduct. Senior Associate Dean of the College Daniel Nelson said the change means that the COS can eliminate haggling over specific charges and concentrate on "what reportedly happened and why."
Nelson, who chaired the review committee, said the eight Standards "convey a more accurate sense of the kind of conduct we expect from the community."
Nelson said he expects the Standards to be in the next Student Handbook, which will come out in the fall.
The report also recommended expanding COS membership and reinforcing guidelines that prohibit evidence relating to the prior history of the complainant in sexual abuse cases.
More members would allow the COS to hear two cases instead of one per week in the Fall, Winter and Spring terms.
Nelson said "people have told the committee that having to wait three or four weeks is really a burden." Enlarging the COS would speed up the rate at which cases can be heard.
In the fall of 1992, Pelton formed the review committee -- which comprised four administrators, four professors and four students -- charging them to fully examine the College's judicial system.
The committee formed during Pelton's first year in office. Earlier that year, the College's handling of four sexual assault cases received widespread publicity, inciting more than 100 students to rally outside Parkhurst Administration building and to call for COS reform.
In June 1993, the review committee produced an initial set of recommendations suggesting minor changes to COS procedures.
That report was made available to everyone within the community, and both Pelton and Nelson elicited opinions from students, professors and other people involved with the College.
The review committee also held a series of poorly attended forums to hear student opinions about the COS.
At the time, Women's Resource Director Mary Childers said the apparent disinterest in the forums reflected greater confidence in the COS because of reforms Pelton instituted following the controversies in 1992.
Nelson said a lot of the concerns expressed had actually been addressed through practice and did not necessitate "rewriting the green pages."
Pelton began issuing regular reports on COS cases and hosting mock COS sexual assault hearings once a year to demystify the COS process.