TBR Office of Academic AffairsStudent Disciplinary Policy revisions instructions…

Institutional Student Disciplinary Policies – Process for Revisions

BACKGROUND:In 2010, the TBR set forth to promulgate a single system-wide set of student discipline and traffic/parking rules deleting those of the individual institutions. A committee representative of the system was established by the Office of Academic Affairs to draft this new system-wide rule. The new system-wide Student Rule was approved by all required parties in 2011 and went into effect on January 29, 2012. The new system-wide rule requires that it be implemented at each institution through policy.

To meet the requirement that each institution have a Student Disciplinary Policy in place to be effective January 29, 2012, the Board approved each TBR institution’s Student Disciplinary Policy at its December 8, 2011 meeting. These policies went into effect on January 29, 2012.

Subsequently, some institutions identified a need to make revisions to their policies including changes to parking and traffic fines. These revisions were submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs prior to the March 2012 Board meeting. As part of the review process, the revisions were also reviewed by the Office of General Counsel staff. These student disciplinarypolicy revisions were then submitted to and approved by the Board at its March 29, 2012 meeting.

REVISON PROCESS:Going forward, the process for revising an institutional Student Disciplinary Policy will follow the same protocol as was followed for the revisions made in March 2012 as follows:

  1. Institutions will submit proposed revisions to the TBR Office of Academic Affairs by a set deadline. It is expected that each institution will have previously reviewed its proposed revisions with Counsel.
  2. The Office of Academic Affairs will review the proposed revisions and consult the institution and the Office of General Counsel should there be any questions or concerns.
  3. The revised Student Disciplinary Policy will be submitted to the Board for its approval. Revisions to an institution’s Student Disciplinary Policy do not require action by the Presidents Council.

IMPORTANT: Institutional student disciplinary policies have to be consistent with the system-wide Rule 0240-02-03 ( The review in the central office will include that determination. Institutions should consult their counsel about revisions prior to submitting revisions to the Office of Academic Affairs. An institution may correct typographical errors or make grammatical edits to its policy without taking the policy to the Board for approval. However, if correction of an error results in a substantive change in the meaning of the passage in question, such a change would need to be approved by the Board.

TIMELINE: The following timeline will be followed for Student Disciplinary Policy revisions:

  • Revisions to Sections 1. Institution Policy Statement, 2. Disciplinary Offenses, 3. Academic and Classroom Misconduct, 4. Disciplinary Sanctions and/or 6. Disciplinary Procedures will be presented to the Board at its MARCHmeeting. Under special circumstances, revisions to these sections may be considered at other Board meetings.
  • Revisions to Section 5. Traffic and Parking (including any changes to traffic and parking fines or fees) will be presented to the Board ONLY at its MARCH meeting.
  • Proposed revisions to a Student Disciplinary Policy must be submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs in electronic format following the instructions below 60 days in advance of theappropriate Board meeting.

INSTRUCTIONS for SUBMITTING REVISIONS:When submitting proposed revisions of the Student Disciplinary policy to the Office of Academic Affairs, three documents are needed as follows:

  1. Mark-up File: The first document required is the institution’s complete Student Disciplinary Policy with the mark-up of changes. Show the policy as written with the original text crossed through in red font followed by the new wording that replaces it also in red font. Policy language that is completely new text should be written in red font. No underlining or italicizing of text is required or allowed. All changes requested in all sections can and should be made on this one document. Send this mark-up file as a Word Document with filename as follows:
  2. [Institution’s abbreviation] Student Disciplinary Policy with mark-up [date of Board meeting]

EXAMPLE: ETSU Student Disciplinary Policy with mark-up 3-28-14

  1. New Policy File: The second document required is the complete Student Disciplinary Policy with the new wording all in black font. This will bethe institution’snew Student Disciplinary Policy as revised once it is approved by the Board. That is, it is a “clean” copy of the Student Disciplinary Policy that includes all of the changes that you are requesting be made. It is the final document that will go into effect upon approval by the Board. Submit this as a Word document with filename as follows:
  2. [Institution’s abbreviation] Student Disciplinary Policy revised [date of Board meeting]

EXAMPLE: ETSU Student Disciplinary Policy revised 3-28-14

  1. Rationale File: The third document required is the brief rationale for revising the policy. Present your reasons for making each change. Be sure to identify the location of each revision in your rationale by section and number. Send the rationale in a separate Word document with filename as follows:
  2. [Institution’s abbreviation] Student Disciplinary Policy rationale [date of Board meeting].

EXAMPLE: ETSU Student Disciplinary Policy rationale 3-28-14

These three documents should be uploadedas Word documents to the Office of Academic Affairs viathe online web submission at:

Please direct any questions you may have about this process to Dr. Leming at .

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