The latest chapter in the Iowa State athletic department’s disciplinary troubles novel points to a clear need for a uniform policy for those athletes charged with a felony.

Over Thanksgiving break, ISU wrestler Alfonso Cruz was arrested on two counts of third degree sexual assault. Wrestling coach Bobby Douglass suspended Cruz, a national qualifier last year, from the team.

Also last week, sexual assault charges against basketball player Kenny Pratt were dropped. Pratt had been dismissed from the team by Coach Tim Floyd, but was later reinstated.

And this summer, football coach Dan McCarney dismissed several players for run-ins with the law and violations of team rules.

It’s good that university officials are at least acknowledging and taking a tough stance with those athletes that act contrary to be best interests of their respective teams, but it hardly seems fair that where one athlete is suspended, another is dismissed for the same or lesser charge.

Earlier this month Murray Blackwelder, ISU’s interim vice president for external affairs, asked the athletic council to recommend a standard policy to university president Martin Jischke.

That’s a step in the right direction.

Some members of the council have also expressed concern about dismissing athletes from their teams before they are convicted of a crime.

That, too, is good news.

For better or worse, we operate in a society that, in theory, says everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. And athletes, though admittedly more visible to the public eye than “regular” students, should be afforded the same right.

It may be quicker and less painful for the university to cut its losses, minimizing public backlash by releasing athletes charged with felonies, but in a society that prides itself on justice, that’s not the most constitutional avenue.