As it goes into its second semester of use, Iowa State’s new student code of conduct will continue to be reviewed by several campus groups.

The Student Disciplinary Regulations, formerly known as the Student Conduct Code, went into effect at the beginning of the fall semester despite the objections of some students.

The revised code was presented to the state Board of Regents before it had been fully approved by the Government of the Student Body and before GSB senators had time to vote on the changes.

Members of the American Civil Liberties Union at Iowa State objected to the three regulations that GSB didn’t approve. One regulation states that students can’t have legal representation at All-University judiciary hearings. The second, proof of conviction, requires a 51-percent proof of guilt. The last item of concern is that the university can find a student guilty of a crime of which they have been acquitted in district court.

A GSB rules subcommittee is reviewing the 54-page document but doesn’t plan to suggest any changes for the 2001-2002 academic year, said Greg Tew, chair of the subcommittee.

“The primary part of our work is research and fact finding,” he said.

Tew, vice speaker of the senate and off-campus senator, said the subcommittee has reviewed the minutes of last year’s rules committee meetings, past senate legislation and coverage in Iowa State Daily articles. He said they also compared the Student Disciplinary Regulations with the conduct codes of other regent schools.

“We still have some research to do,” he said. “We will look into what the Board of Regents said over the summer and look at how they implemented some of our suggestions.”

The subcommittee may be asked to submit new suggestions to the Board of Regents after it completes its research, said Tew, senior in aerospace engineering.

“The speaker of the senate may expand the scope of the committee to include working on the new changes,” he said.

Tew said representatives from the Dean of Students Office, University Legal Services and the ACLU were invited to take part in the meetings.

Interim Dean of Students Pete Englin said the dean’s office also will be looking at the new code.

“We’ll review the entire document starting spring semester, and we’ll solicit input from a wide variety of sources,” he said.

Nathan Ashmore, president of ACLU at ISU, said he has been participating in the GSB meetings and is planning to try to increase student awareness of the issue.

“Next semester we plan to go around to house meetings and drum up support that way, but that’s all we’re doing at the moment,” said Ashmore, sophomore in materials engineering.

Herman Quirmbach, faculty adviser of ACLU at ISU, said the organization is not going to stop fighting the code.

“We are still vitally interested in this issue,” he said. “The Student Conduct Code is a real disappointment as far as student rights are concerned.”

Quirmbach said the organization is taking its own actions.

“We are doing research on the decision process leading to the regulations adoption in the last year,” he said. “This has been a little challenging, but we will continue working on it.”

Englin said changes to the regulations may not occur for some time.

“We wouldn’t plan on making changes until the spring semester,” he said.

Tew said the GSB subcommittee will not act until after break.

“We plan to present our findings to rules committee early in the spring semester,” he said.

Student reactions to the new regulations are mixed.

“My experience has been that it has been well-received,” Englin said. “It seems to be working quite well.”

Tew said more students have become dissatisfied with the new disciplinary code as they learned more about the rules.

“In general, this has brought a lot of the content of the code to the student body’s attention,” he said. “I think now that they know more about it, they are less happy.”