The University is to unveil plans at Congregation to tighten up regulations on drugs and attempted property damage by students.
The new rules would also remove the £100 limit on Proctoral fines.
The possession of drugs would be reclassified as a breach of the Code of Discipline. Additionally, any “attempt to deface or destroy property” will be seen as a violation of the Code. Previously, it was only considered a breach to actually damage property, not simply to attempt to do so.
In other changes to the University’s rules system, students who break university regulations will now have the right to appeal “against decisions to suspend a student pending criminal proceedings or a University disciplinary hearing.”
A representative of the University Press Office said, “The amendments before Congregation to Statute VI relating to discipline is a tidying-up exercise – the amendments are all technical changes or clarifications. These are mainly efforts to tidy up Statute XI and introduce comparatively minor changes in the light of experience.”
The Press Office also said that the removal of the cap on fines would have no practical effect , as the Council has for years set fines by specific regulations.
The proposed changes will be put to Congregation, the University’s supreme governing body, on the 16th June. If approved, the new rules will come into effect in October 2009.
The Press Office added, “The amendments have been under discussion for several months and come forward now so that, if approved, there will be time to amend websites etcetera, before they come into force.”
It is likely that all of the proposed amendments will be passed by Congregation. Peter Oppenheimer, President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, is one of the academics voting. He said they were “not changing anything that’s not already illegal.”
College regulations usually include a clause about drug possession. For example, Magdalen specify, “The College will report any breach of the law to the Police.”
One student, who wishes to remain anonymous, commented, “I doubt this rule change is going to do anything to stop students possessing drugs. I think most students assume it’s not allowed, anyway.”
