New Ad Board Rules Working

The Administrative Board's new procedure went smoothly this week as the first student permitted to personally plead his case appeared before the 25-man disciplinary body, members of the Board said yesterday.

Under the new rules, which were instituted on a trial basis last month, students charged with serious disciplinary violations may appear in person before the Board when their case is presented and may bring a faculty adviser with them.

"By and large the [new] process worked very well and we were generally pleased," Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57, chairman of the Ad Board, said of Tuesday's case.

Members of the body declined to discuss the specifics of the case.

The Ad Board, which hears the majority of all student disciplinary cases, will decide at the end of the term if it will make the changes permanent, Jewett said.

Some members of the disciplinary body said yesterday that they thought the new procedures will help them establish the facts in some cases.

"Hearing a student's own interpretation is important," said Adams House Senior Tutor Marshall Hyatt, a member of the Ad Board. All senior tutors and senior advisors sit on the disciplinary body.

"Having the student there in some cases will give us a sense of the student's character," said Robert Franklin, North House senior tutor.

In the past, a student's senior tutor or senior advisor presented the facts of the case to the Ad Board and then read a written statement from the student. Now students may read the statement and respond to any questions in person.

But having students appear personally probably will not change the results in most cases, although it may help students to understand the Ad Board's decision, several members said.

"In the long term, I expect the results to be largely the same as they were before, but students are likely to feel more comfortable with the outcomes," said Jeffrey Wolcowitz, Dunster House senior tutor. "Much of the mystique and mystery [of the discipline process] has been eliminated."

Some members said they were concerned that the new procedures may make the disciplinary process too time consuming. But several Ad Board members said they do not think personal appearances will delay the process very much, although they said they cannot make a final determination after hearing only one case.

"It's not going to be a significant amount of extra time for the Board because the presentation will work pretty much the same way," said Lowell House Senior Tutor John M. Lee. "Sometimes the cases may even go faster because the student is there to clarify points that the senior tutor may not know."