At University Senate on Sept. 13, General Counsel Bram Freedman tabled the Academic Hearing Panel annual report and made an appeal of his own for faculty members to join the pool. The student pool is full, said Freedman, but at last count, six hearings are being delayed for lack of faculty representatives on the tribunals.

The hearings are into cases of academic misconduct and/or re-evaluation appeals.

Panels for academic misconduct cases are convened when a student requests a full hearing. The panels are made up of three faculty members and two students.

Panels are usually held at 5 or 5:30 p.m., and on average, they last about 60 to 90 minutes. Panel members are expected to read the documentation sent to them about one week before the hearing. This consists of the incident report, the decision letter of the dean or delegate, and any evidence the parties wish to produce.

A non-voting chair presides over the hearing, and the secretary of the panel writes up the decision for the panel's approval. On the day of the hearing, panel members listen to both parties and then deliberate privately regarding the charge and the sanction.

The re-evaluation panels are composed of two faculty members and one student. They review only the written record when a student is unsatisfied with the result of his re-evaluation. Re-evaluation appeals occur quite rarely, usually one per semester. They are usually held during the day.

Danielle Tessier, of the University Secretariat, said, “The larger the pool of available members, the fewer panels an individual will have to sit on. In any event, members of the tribunal pool are under no obligation to sit on a panel if it is inconvenient.

“All faculty members who are willing to be part of the pool and participate in hearings will have my everlasting gratitude,” she added.

Academic Hearing Panel Report
June 1, 2001 - August 31, 2002

In accordance with article 69 of the Code of Conduct (Academic), this report is submitted to the September meeting of Senate and will be published in the University’s newspaper.

Senate approved modifications to the Code at meetings held in September and November 2001. In January 2002, the Office of the Board of Governors and Senate (now part of the University Secretariat) assumed the administrative responsibility for the record keeping of all incident reports as well as the coordination of Academic Hearing Panels.

There were a total 254 Incident Reports filed during the time period covered by this report. The specific breakdown, by faculty, may be found below in Table A.

During this period, a total of 25 Academic Hearing Panels (AHP) were conducted. An additional 16 hearings are currently pending and will be conducted during the months of September and October 2002.

There were six requests for permission to appeal decisions of an AHP filed during the year. Permission for an Appeal Panel was not granted in any of the cases.

— University Secretariat