In the first University Assembly meeting of the academic year on Aug. 26, members discussed requesting its representation on the 2025-26 Code and Procedures Review Committee following news that the Student Code of Conduct will be revised.
The 11-member committee — which includes representatives from the Student Assembly, and Graduate and Professional Student Assembly — will review current policies, solicit input from stakeholders and propose amendments to the Code, according to a University-wide email sent by Ryan Lombardi, the vice president for student and campus life, on the same day. The committee will not include other members that exclusively represent the U.A.
Prof. David Bateman, government, a ranking member of the U.A. and voting member on the Campus Codes Committee, said “there is no obvious reason why we shouldn’t have representation” on the review committee.
During the meeting, U.A. members voiced concerns about the formation of the review committee.
“[It looks like] the University is deciding who to have as representation on their committee, not only without consulting those under-committees, [but] not us,” said Prof. Jonathan Butcher, engineering, and 2025-26 U.A. Campus Codes Committee chair.
The review committee includes Student Assembly President Zora deRham ’27 and GPSA President and graduate student Nicholas Brennan, who are voting members of the U.A. and are required Student Assembly and GPSA constituents of the review committee per the Code.
According to a University spokesperson, “The SA and GPSA Presidents not only serve their respective Assemblies, per the Code but also are members of the University Assembly and can represent the concerns of both assemblies.”
U.A. members were unclear on how the members of the review committee were selected.
Eeshaan Chaudhuri, U.A. vice chair for operations, proposed writing a resolution to ask the administration “where they’re pulling people from” for the review committee, and how the ratio of administrators to students and faculty on the committee was decided.
There are currently four undergraduate and graduate students on the 11 person committee
including Quinn Rinkus ’26 and Jennica Yoo ’27, a resident advisor representative. The remaining seven faculty and administrators involve Lombardi and Christina Liang, senior associate dean of students and director of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards.
U.A. members also discussed representation of the wider University community on the review committee.
“Although right now it’s called the Student Codes, it was previously Campus Codes, because everyone is affected, right?,” U.A. Chair and graduate student Irene Gatimi said, referring to the 2021 implementation of the Student Code of Conduct that replaced the Campus Codes of Conduct.
The replacement controversially switched the authority over, and administration of, the Code from the U.A. Campus Codes Committee, formerly known as The University Assembly Codes and Judiciary Committee, to Lombardi.
Unlike the former Codes, which also applied to faculty and staff, the Student Code of Conduct applies exclusively to students, and is an attempt to make students “active participants” in the judicial process, according to a 2021 statement by Lombardi.
The University spokesperson also wrote that Lombardi will “consult with the Assemblies” during the code revision process, and that “further details regarding the collaborative consultation process will be announced in the coming months.”
According to the University spokesperson, the Student Code of Conduct revision “does not conflict with University Assembly business and that of the University Assembly Campus Code[s] Committee’s charge” as established in Section 4.1 of the U.A. bylaws.
The U.A. “will have the opportunity to review any motion put forth to the UA, as well as propose resolutions, or review and amend any resolution submitted to the UA related to the Student Code of Conduct,” the University spokesperson wrote. “Any proposed amendments that pass the UA will be reviewed by the Code and Procedure Review Committee, which will advise the Vice President of Student and Campus Life.”
The U.A. will write a resolution under the Campus Codes Committee that will encourage or enforce the addition of the U.A. position, according to Gatimi.
“There’s a lack of transparency as it stands right now,” Gatimi said. “And even [a] lack of transparency is not democratic.”
The U.A. Campus Codes Committee plans to present a resolution at the next U.A. meeting on Sept. 16 to inquire about and request U.A. representation on the review committee. If passed by the U.A., the resolution will be submitted to President Michael Kotlikoff
Yuhan Huang is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. Yuhan is a staff writer for the News department and can be reached at yhuang@cornellsun.com.
