VSU’s Student Conduct Office has implemented a new Student Conduct Incident Report available for students, faculty and staff members to report incidents of student misconduct.

According to Richard C. Lee, assistant dean of students for student conduct, the SCIR is a component of the school’s conduct management software program, called Maxient, which was implemented by the VPSA/DOSO in 2010.

“It provides for a much improved method for students, staff, and faculty to ‘report’ alleged misconduct of VSU students or organizations to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Office,” Lee said. “It’s an online form that expedites a reporting entity’s information to the VPSA/DOSO with greater detail.”

The new SCIR consists of a section for background information, where the person filing the incident report includes his or her name, position, contact information. This section also includes general details of the report, such as the nature, date and location of the incident. People filing the report will also have the option of having a copy of the report emailed to them.

The following section of the SCIR includes the contact information of the party, or parties, that are involved in the incident. The next section of the form will ask for details of the incident, after which a section for supporting documentation is supplied.

“There is a measure of built-in security involved that requires user authentication of the reporting person, so false reports have been nonexistent so far,” Lee said.

The reporting person must confirm his or her identity by entering in his or her BlazeVIEW username and password, giving the report more credibility. The final step of the report is a CAPTCHA, provided to keep out spam and increase security.

To eliminate invalid reports, anonymous reports are not accepted and can only be filed with the VSU police. If a false report is filed, the reporting person will face the consequences written out in the student code of conduct for this violation.

Reports are then reviewed and followed by the assignment of appropriate Code of Conduct violations. It is possible that the person who has reported the incident will be contacted to provide further details and may be asked to be present at a conduct hearing at a later date.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects all student’s university conduct records, which means that the outcome of any investigation of a reported incident will not be shared without the consent of the reporting person.