Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Lori White spoke to members of the SMU Student Senate Tuesday about the recent fraternity suspensions on campus and introduced a group responsibility clause that she would like to add into the Student Code of Conduct.

The new policy would allow student organizations to be held responsible for the acts of individual members such as hazing, vandalism, theft, assault, dishonesty, or drug and alcohol violations. The Student Code of Conduct is written and voted on by students, so senate approval is needed. A senate committee will review the proposal Feb. 23 and reveal their findings to the senate at their next meeting, when they will vote on the proposal.

The proposal was met with opposition from many senators who felt it was too general and would be incompatible with organizations with upwards of 100 members. Dr. White said the proposal would give organizations the tools to address members that are violating state law or university standards.

Members of the senate also heard from Chief Information Officer for Information Technology Services Joe Gargiulo, who plans to get more student input into the IT department.

Senators continued the meeting, voting to install Sens. Kobler, Hayden, Lane, Washington and Johnson as members of the Faculty-Senate Joint Committee, and also inaugurated three new senators.

The senate voted in favor of a resolution encouraging the faculty senate to reinstate two reading days per semester during the 2009-2010 university calendar. While the calendar has already been approved, the senate passed a similar calendar resolution to change fall break for the fall 2008 semester once that calendar had been approved.