In Brief

Committee Considers Honor Court Changes

The Committee on Student Conduct discussed Tuesday some recommended changes to the student Honor Court, including the appeals process.

Committee members spoke generally about amendments to both the Honor Court's appeals process and its academic sanctions.

One recommended change calls for the submission of a detailed statement by the defendant outlining the grounds for appeal.

The statement would have to be the accused student's own work -- the student's legal counsel would not be permitted to write it.

Committee members also talked about reducing the time limit for filing a detailed statement from 10 days after the initial ruling to five business days.

Appeals based on newly discovered evidence also were discussed. The group considered the possibility of removing the grounds of newly discovered evidence from the appeals process and instead making it a separate process without a time limitation.

Members also discussed the idea of offering a wider menu of sanctions to be handed down by the Honor Court.

New sanctions would be implemented to reinforce the educational aspects of the Honor Code and teach students in violation of the code about their offenses.

Another meeting will be held next week to discuss these issues, as well as the proposed "XF" grade, in greater detail.

GPSF Requests Student Input in Town Decisions

The Graduate and Professional Student Federation Senate unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday calling on the Chapel Hill Town Council, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy and other town officials to actively pursue greater student inclusion in the decision-making processes relating to its land-use management ordinance.

The GPSF resolution is particularly concerned with issues of occupancy and parking restrictions that directly affect UNC students.

In other news, Stephanie Schmitt, GPSF vice president of external affairs, brought it to the attention of the Senate that UNC is considering a change to the grading system for graduate students.

The pass/fail system would be replaced by letter grades.

Schmitt suggested the formation of a GPSF committee to get feedback from all departments on the proposed change.

TA Task Force Selects Peer Schools for Study

Teaching assistant compensation at 20 peer institutions will be compared to UNC-Chapel Hill's payment in a study sponsored by the Teaching Assistant Task Force.

Committee members selected the universities Tuesday.

Those selected include Duke University, N.C. State University, the University of Virginia, Cornell University and the University of California-Berkeley.

In a memo sent to the committee after the meeting, Chairman Steve Allred identified five sources of funding used to compensate TAs.

They are state-funded merit awards, state-funded lapsed salaries, campus-based tuition, private external funds and overhead receipts.

The study's results will be discussed at the task force's next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 26.