May 5, 1997

Muskopf reflects on year

Student Life works on ironing out kinks

By Steve Brown

ffice of Student Life administration endured a year of change and emerged pleased with its overall performance and is looking forward to proposed changes to make next year's punitive proceedings better and more efficient.

Sandra Muskopf, assistant dean of Student Life, said the year started off "a little rocky."

"I came in at a difficult transition time, with (former Director of Housing and Residence Life) Mike Lawrence leaving and (former Assistant Dean of Student Life) Ann Slack having been here in the summer," Muskopf said.

Upon taking over from Lawrence in October, Muskopf had little time to get her feet wet in the new job as she plunged immediately into an alleged theft proceeding.

"It was like 'Here, you're going to have a hearing in 10 days, you're taking over this,'" Muskopf said.

The charges involved theft of money and unauthorized use of a student's long-distance code. Although the student charged was ultimately found not responsible, it helped give Muskopf a glimpse of things to come in her new position.

Muskopf said the most common infraction that occurred over the past year was Level I alcohol, which means the offense was either not serious or was a first-time offense.

She also said there were a number of Level II alcohol offenses, which are more serious and usually second-time infractions.

"Level I alcohol violations result in a $50 fine and a visit to the alcohol and drug abuse prevention center," Muskopf said.

The visit to the center involves students meeting with a counselor for an assessment appointment, where they discuss the circumstances surrounding the offense to determine if there is an abuse problem.

According to Muskopf, based on that meeting, students could be sent for further counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

"A lot of first-time offenders attend an alcohol awareness class Saturday morning at 8 a.m.," Muskopf said.

"The class is a group discussion that talks about the different stages of alcoholism."

Other infractions that occurred during the year included two sexual assaults and one physical assault. Those charged were found not responsible in all instances. Muskopf added there were around nine or 10 fraternity infractions.

"Most of the fraternity offenses were Level I alcohol violations," Muskopf said.

One incident involved three individuals breaking into the Delta Gamma sorority house and causing property damage of approximately $10,000. Three men discharged fire extinguishers in the house to repay a prank, which occurred earlier in the year. Muskopf said the incident was under investigation and would most likely not have a hearing until the fall.

"We don't have judicial hearings during finals week," Muskopf said, explaining that pending cases are held over until the next full semester.

The most severe punishments handed down were two suspensions, one resulting from a student -on-student assault, and the other from a male student verbally threatening a female professor with assault.

"He had threatened lots of other professors and students," Muskopf said. "He was just out of control."

One type of infraction that occurred this year that Muskopf found a little surprising was the unauthorized use of SMU long-distance codes. Muskopf said this was something new this year that her office was taking very seriously. In all three cases, the students were found responsible and made to pay back the full cost of the phone bills.

"It's important for students to know that they cannot use codes that aren't assigned to them through AT&T or SMU," Muskopf said.

Overall, Muskopf said the year went fairly smooth with the busiest periods being in November, just after the Thanksgiving break and in April after spring break.

"I guess the sun is bringing everybody outdoors and doing things," Muskopf said.

Muskopf said the database her office has created will help make punishments more consistent, as they have all the records on file and can use them as points of reference.

According to Muskopf, recent proposals to consolidate the various hearing boards into one would also help to alleviate a great deal of the confusion if they are actually implemented.

"Although there is room for improvement, I feel like we have accomplished a lot," Muskopf said.

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