Although the Student Information Handbook for 1996-98 has a new cover, its contents remain, for the most part, unchanged.

The Student Information Handbook, put out by the Dean of Students office, is mostly known for its information on the university’s judicial procedures.

Every two years a new student handbook is published. There are no major changes in this year’s handbook, except for names and numbers. But major changes will be made in the 1999-2001 handbook.

Kathleen MacKay, dean of students, said the Dean of Students office took nominations last spring for the handbook review committee. She said primarily the judicial procedures will be thoroughly reviewed.

Last year, judicial procedures in the student handbook received much attention from the incident involving Deantrious Mitchell and the activities of the Beardshear Eight.

Mitchell was a black student- security officer who pleaded guilty to falsifying a police report he gave last year.

MacKay said she has received a lot of feedback from people concerning the judicial procedures.

“I think due to all of the attention [last year], it made [the judicial procedures] more confusing,” she said.

MacKay said the laws for other universities are changing all time. “I think there are some things that need to be changed,” she said.

Judicial procedures isn’t the only topic discussed in the student handbook.

Other topics in the handbook include services and programs of the Dean of Students office, student rights and university conduct regulations, university policies and practices and regulations governing organizations and student grievances.

MacKay said the review committee will be made up of faculty and students.

“We’re trying to get a good representation of students,” she said.

Around 60 applications were received by the Dean of Students office, but only 12 were chosen to serve on the review committee.

MacKay appoints the committee members but is not directly involved with the meeting or their decisions.

After the decisions have been made, MacKay said the handbook has to be reviewed by a lawyer before it can be printed.

“It’s a binding contract,” she said.

“The timeline is to have most of the committee work done by the end of the fall semester,” MacKay said.

All of the review committee meetings are open to the public, and to find out about meeting times contact the Dean of Students office.

W. Houston Dougharty, assistant dean of students, will chair the handbook review committee.