Whereas, Andrew Dickson White assigned student conduct to the faculty rather than the President in his 1866 Plan of Organization which the Trustees adopted before making him Cornell's first President;
Whereas, a key demand of the 1969 Willard Straight Hall Takeover that led to the creation of the elected Assemblies was the creation of a campus judicial system that was independent of the central administration;
Whereas, as asserted during the Barton Hall assemblies, “due process says that a party in a dispute cannot be impartial. Therefore, the University is not competent to judge acts committed against itself”;
Whereas, the faculty retained sole responsibility for student conduct regulation until 1970, when it was transferred to the student-faculty-employee University Senate.
Whereas, the University Senate has since been split into the various elected Assemblies, with the University Assembly having assumed responsibility over student conduct since;
Whereas, in December 2020, the Board of Trustees approved the Student Code and Procedures without amending the University Assembly Charter;
Whereas, upon adoption of the new Student Code of Conduct in 2021, the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards (OSCCS) replaced the Office of the Judicial Administrator;
Whereas, the implementation of the Student Code of Conduct by OSCCS has caused excessive and unreasonable delays in cases where a student or student organization has been temporarily suspended;
Whereas, the Student Code of Conduct states that administration of the Code and associated Procedures is vested with the Vice President for Student and Campus Life in ongoing collaborative consultation with the elected Assemblies of the University;
Whereas, since 2021, the Standing Code and Procedures Review Committee has not been appointed until August 26, 2025, when Vice President Ryan Lombardi appointed six administrators and five community members to the committee;
Whereas, the implementation of the Student Code of Conduct by the central administration has repeatedly infringed upon freedom of expression and the individual rights of students, and thus necessitates thorough reform;
Whereas, the Student Code of Conduct Procedures, Section II(A), require the Director of OSCCS to provide an annual report to the Student Assembly on the operations of the office and of the student conduct system;
Whereas, the Student Code of Conduct specifies that the Vice President of Student and Campus Life or their designee will chair and convene a standing “Code and Procedures Review Committee” that will include representatives from the Student Assembly and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly;
Whereas, the Student Code of Conduct does not reference representatives of the administration as voting members of the Standing Code and Procedures Review Committee;
Whereas, thorough reform of the Student Code of Conduct and practices associated with its implementation must be considered in collaboration with the elected Assemblies;
Whereas, reform of the Student Code of Conduct should only be considered in a fully democratic process involving all members of the Cornell community in which the central administration plays only an advisory role;
Whereas, Vice President Lombardi selected six administrators, constituting 55% of the Code and Procedures Review Committee, with no input from the elected Assemblies;
Whereas, pursuant to Article 3, Section 1 of the Student Assembly Charter, the Assembly has legislative authority over the policies of the Department of Campus Life and the Office of the Dean of Students;
Whereas, pursuant to Article 3, Section 1 of the Charter, the Assembly has the authority to require at any time information directly from a department or a specific individual within that department concerning the budget, policies, or actions of said department;
Be it therefore resolved, the administration’s failure to collaborate with the elected Assemblies is a betrayal of Cornell’s system of shared governance;
Be it further resolved, that the Assembly formally requests all information regarding the process by which Vice President Lombardi identified, evaluated, and appointed the voting members of the Standing Code and Procedures Review Committee;
Be it further resolved, that the Assembly formally requests the annual reports of the Director of OSCCS from the following academic years: 2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025;
Be it further resolved, that the Student Assembly believes that the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, which oversees enforcement of the Student Code of Conduct, should be independent of the central administration;
Be it further resolved, that the Student Code of Conduct be revised by freely elected members of the University Assembly, the Student Assembly, the Faculty Senate, and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly;
Be it finally resolved, that a committee composed of three freely elected members from each of these bodies revise the Student Code of Conduct, and that the revision be approved by each of these bodies.
Respectfully Submitted,
Aiden Vallecillo ’26 Student Workers’ Representative, Student Assembly
Max Ehrlich ‘26 College of Industrial and Labor Relations Representative, Student Assembly
Dylan Carson ‘28 College of Arts and Sciences Representative, Student Assembly
Saanya Agarwal ‘27 Women’s Issues Representative, Student Assembly
Kennedy Young ‘28 Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Student Assembly
Lydia Blum ‘27 College of Agriculture & Life Sciences Representative, Student Assembly
Christian Flournoy ‘27 Executive Vice President, Student Assembly
Grace Dorward ‘26 College of Agriculture & Life Sciences Representative, Student Assembly
Daniel Addoquaye ‘28 Vice President for Policy, Student Assembly
Sophia Arnold ‘26 Director of the Office of Ethics, Student Assembly
Jonathan Lam ‘26 Co-President, The Cornell University Student Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
Zilala Mamat ‘26 Co-President, The Cornell University Student Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
Hudson Athas ‘27 Co-Chair, Young Democratic Socialists of America
Delphi Lyra ‘28 Co-Chair, Young Democratic Socialists of America
Jaimie Chen ‘26 Co-President, Cornell Asian Pacific Americans for Action
Kappa Alpha Pi Professional Pre-Law Fraternity
Ava Osorio ‘28 Coordinating Chair, Cornell Committee on U.S.-Latin America Relations
Shaunjae Suarez ‘26 Political Education Chair, Cornell Committee on U.S.-Latin America Relations
Hasham Khan ‘26 President, Kashmiri Cultural Alliance
Adriana Vink ‘27 President, Progressives at Cornell
Kate Irwin ‘26 President, Latinx Association of Pre-Laws at Cornell University
Lani Lin-Kissick ‘27 Cornell on Fire
Professor Shimon Edelman Cornell on Fire
Yoojung Joe ‘26 President, International Students Association
Rene Cabrera ‘27 Co-Chair, Mecha de Cornell
Emely Gutierrez ‘27 Co-Chair, Mecha de Cornell
