WashU's Office of Student Conduct & Community Standards (OSCCS) released an updated Student Code of Conduct over the summer of 2024. The updates came after a semester of internal discussions and feedback from Student Union (SU) members about University policies and procedures.

The main changes to the Code consist of an explicit addition of the word "bullying" to create the Harassment and Bullying subsection under the Offenses section, the incorporation of the University's new academic integrity process, and new definitions for terms used throughout the Code.

Nicole Gore, the Associate Dean for Student Conduct and Community Standards, told Student Life in an interview that most of the recent changes to the Code were focused on the accessibility of its wording rather than any substantive changes to offenses or procedures within it.

"I think it's important to know that this is just a revision, right? It's not a new code -- it was revised," she said. "So some of the changes were really designed to make the Code more accessible for students."

Gore noted that one of the changes to the Code of Conduct was the division of broader offenses, like the harassment offense, into several distinct offenses.

"If we look in the old Code, we see this one offense was for stalking, hazing, domestic violence, interpersonal violence, and harassment, right? All in one. That's a lot," Gore said. "So now we've broken that particular provision into four separate offenses. That gives more specificity so that students understand what we're talking about when they have to interact with our office."

Gore also said that the most-significant revisions to the new Code are in Section II: Definitions, which expanded from four terms ("student," "campus," "member of the University community," and "student group") to 24.

Notable terms added include "Student Conduct Board Chair" and "pre-hearing." Other definitions, like the Code's definition of consent, are not new but have been relocated to Section II with the Code's other definitions.

Gore wrote in an email to Student Life that her office researched and consulted with various peer institutions like Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, and Duke University when revising the Code.

Gore and Dean of Students Rob Wild presented the new changes to the Code at the Student Union's joint session on April 9. Student Life previously reported on concerns raised by several SU members at the session, which primarily focused on sections of the Code pertaining to off-campus "disruptive conduct" and bullying. Some SU members were also worried that the new Code could result in students facing consequences from the University for noise complaints at off-campus locations.

Gore clarified that the consequences of noise complaints were not introduced by the updated Code. The new code simply reworded the existing scope of the consequences, which have been part of it for years.

"People are seeing [the Code's scope] in a different way because it is phrased in a different way, but the scope of the sorts of behavior that might be a violation of the Student Code of Conduct has not changed," Gore said.

Gore also told Student Life that she remembers SU members having concerns about the absence of the term "cyberbullying" in the updated Code, but she believes the addition of the term "bullying" adequately encompasses cyberbullying.

"Cyberbullying is also part of bullying, which is also part of harassment," Gore said. "So we do feel like that is covered in the Code, and we've tried to make that more explicit by including 'bullying' in the new Code."

Gore emphasized that the OSCCS holds student feedback in high regard, and anyone is free to reach out to her office with suggestions for revision or other feedback.