Organizational Conduct Procedure

[Hava Edelstein]

Dear all,
OpCom -- based on the comments in our meeting, I added a section called "Investigative Background," which clarifies when this procedure will be used, based on the confusion expressed in the committee conversation. I was trying to make everything more transparent; feedback is welcome.

Jan - would it be possible to forward this to all members of the Conduct Committee; I'm not sure how...thanks.

Jan, Monique, Conduct Committee Members, Nora, and Cabinet - this document is a proposal for a process to be used when the Enforcement Committee hears Conduct Cases. Right now, there is no written-down procedure for conduct cases that fall outside of specific types of cases. By this I mean, harassment has a specific procedure, substance abuse will have a specific procedure, but lots of conduct violations do not. The purpose of this policy is to make the process clear and transparent, so that the member, member advocate, conduct com members, etc. will know how things should go.

OpCom has approved this policy, with the stipulation that the policy may be altered before the board meeting pending additional feedback.

If you have feedback, please send it to me. If I receive it before this Thursday at 6 PM, I will present it to the Cabinet. If I receive it later, I will try to incorporate it to the best of my ability. After the Cabinet meeting, I will send it out for wider feedback.

Anonymity issue: OpCom had some questions about anonymity, and is seeking the feedback of those who have been directly involved in conduct investigations:
(1) Currently, we always protect the anonymity of harassment cases, and in these cases, the alleged harassers are not allowed to speak to the conduct committee directly. This is for legal reasons, as I understand it. This will not change, unless someone has some compelling reason why it should.
(2) A broader issue is that currently, members who are accused of conduct violations that are substance abuse and are not harassment do NOT have the right to remain anonymous in conduct investigations. Should this change? If it changes, should conduct com have the right to talk to the person directly (effectively breaking the anonymity protection)? Should the member have the right to break this?

Currently the policy is written to reflect the current state of things.

Thanks in advance for any comments. If you'd like to be part of the Cabinet discussion on this (and are not a member of Cabinet), let Daniel know (pres...@bsc.coop), and he can e-mail you the Cabinet agenda when it's decided.

Thanks!



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Hava Edelstein
Vice President of Operations
Berkeley Student Cooperative (http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org)
v...@bsc.coop
Celebrating over 75 years of affordable, cooperative, student-run housing!

Graduate Student in Instructional Technology at San Francisco State
http://www.sfsu.edu/~itec/

Previously: Undergraduate Degree from UC Berkeley in Cognitive Science
ha...@berkeley.edu