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Changes to university code take time. In fact, most changes in academia take time.
They need - and deserve - discussion, research and reflection.
They don't deserve to sit on administrators' desks for years.
A certain bit of reflection is a good idea. Changes to these codes that determine the lives of university students and employees should not be made in haste.
But there is a difference between being thorough and being slow.
The Daily Egyptian asks this university's administrators to remember that every day they put off these revisions, someone's life could be seriously affected.
The university has taken more than two years to address changes to the sexual harassment policy.
Professor John Y. Simon was escorted off campus in January because of sexual harassment allegations against him.
While waiting for a chance to address the allegations against him, Simon, who had worked with the university since 1964, died. Friends say that, at the time of his death, he still did not know the nature of the accusations against him.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Cal Myers was also escorted off campus for allegations of sexual harassment in late January. Although he does know the nature of the allegations, he has yet to discuss the matter with the university and filed a lawsuit against it Aug. 12.
Meanwhile, he has continued his research on breast and prostate cancer prevention from his home, without many of his materials and equipment. The equipment he used at SIUC was bought with a donation he made from his own pocket to the university.
While sexual harassment allegations are serious and should be addressed, the Daily Egyptian feels the university's two-year-plus timeline for these changes is just too long, especially because they could have sped up a resolution for ongoing allegations.
There was a similar delay in the revisions to the Student Conduct Code. Changes were first made public a year after the revision began.
Almost nothing was different.
Revisions to the code began when seven students were kicked off campus in October 2006 without a hearing. They were not just prohibited from living on campus. They were forbidden from going to classes, right in the middle of a semester they had already paid for, and without even a chance to defend themselves.
The new code is meant to speed up the students' chance at a hearing that could have gotten them reinstated in time to salvage the semester.
Campus safety is important to all of us, and the students of the Daily Egyptian, as much as anyone else, want a safe learning environment.
We also want one that is fair.
We think there is some middle ground the university can take that speeds up revisions to codes and resolutions to conflicts,------ while still protecting the university students and employees from those who wish us less than the best.
We hope the university will do its best to discover that middle ground.
