Academic Policy Transparency
"Academic policies are difficult to digest; students are often unaware of their academic rights and how to apply them. This process becomes more confusing as students must engage with different review boards if they themselves are accused of breaching academic policies."
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how do we address this?
Making The WSS Resources More Accessible
This year the WSS created a resource that makes academic policy more digestible, but many students do not know where to find these resources if they are not engaged with the student leader community. Therefore, this resource should be modified to include links to the actual academic policy as it stands and linked on both OWL and on Student Centre’s Quick Links.
Strengthening The Student Appeals Process at the USC
The Student Appeals Support Centre (SASC) is very important to the protection of students’ academic rights. Seeing as this year the position of Student Appeals Support Coordinator is vacant, students have missed out on the opportunity to utilize the USC’s body of knowledge when going through the appeals process. I would like to see a revitalization of the Student Appeals Support Centre, spearheaded by the newly hired coordinator, who would be working very closely with the office of the Ombudsperson. To add validity to this role I would invite the coordinator to be a resource member on the Ombudsperson Advisory Committee.
Faculty Accountability Using an Anonymous Investigative Body
Faculty, in theory, are supposed to be held to the same academic standards as outlined by the Senate. However, there is a lack of accountability as to the enforcement of the academic policy, and the onus falls on students to go to their professor with their concerns about a potential breach of academic policy. This creates an undue hardship for the student as they must now weigh the potential for retaliation or apathy against their own academic wellbeing. To hold faculty accountable, I would like to advocate for the creation of an investigative body. Wherein students anonymously report their concerns about potential breaches of academic policy by professors. These policies would be made accessible to students through the proposed sharing of the WSS resources on OWL and Student Centre. This body would then be able to investigate on behalf of the student, to hold faculty accountable. If there is a breach, it would be remedied, and if there is no solution it would go into a file concerning academic misconduct.
