UW pushes Code of Conduct changes date after backlash
After backlash from students and faculty, UW administration will now be giving a proper chance for opinions to be heard regarding proposed Code of Conduct changes
By Blake Latta
In November 2025, UW President Robert J. Jones announced a review of the UW Student Conduct Code. This was to “take a close look at how we continue to ensure transparency, fairness and accountability when it comes to student conduct in the modern university environment.” The proposed changes to the Student Conduct Code would broaden who could be punished in connections to protests as well. The proposed amendments were to Chapter 478-121 WAC, Student Conduct Code for the University of Washington (WSR 26-15-104) and to Chapter 478-124 WAC, General Conduct Code for the University of Washington (WSR 26-15-105).
In addition to this widening of scope, there are proposed changes to who can sit on the appeals board. Currently, only faculty and students can serve as appeal officers. Under the proposed changes, staff and unnamed outside contractors, who don’t need to have any ties to the university, could fill those seats, and panels would no longer be required to have a faculty chair.
According to Sophia Sostrin of The Daily, the UW Seattle’s student newspaper, on July 20, the proposal was submitted officially. The faculty were given notice about the filing on Aug. 19. Since it is in the middle of summer, there were not many students or faculty on campus at that time. UW Seattle said they would be accepting written comments for these proposed changes through Aug. 25, hold a hearing that same day, and had a planned adoption date of Sept. 9.
This extremely short turn around was widely criticized by both students and faculty at UW Seattle. According to reporting from Talan Collins from The Daily, ASUW President Shantanu Adekar and Vice President Dylan Bianchi, the short notice prevented them from developing an official ASUW position. According to the same report from Collins, 11 former UW faculty chairs claimed, “the university did not follow normal procedures for amending the Student Conduct Code.” Additionally, UW Seattle students say these revisions “target protestors, chill speech, and were written without adequate student input.”
UW Seattle students are actively protesting these choices by going to hearings and speaking out about these changes. This is the direct opposite of how UW Tacoma students are reacting to these proposed changes.
After speaking with ASUWT President Terrell Stalworth, he says that students at UW Tacoma don’t seem to be aware of these changes that were proposed at all. He says the code of conduct changes are not coming up often when he is talking with students around campus, even though these changes are university wide.
“They aren’t thinking about these conduct changes, but these conduct changes will absolutely affect them,” Stalworth said. “This is important for students to know about.”
Stalworth said that he is concerned about the possibility of an outside party coming in during the appeals process for a student and not knowing who it will be. He said students are also concerned about not being given a fair chance due to the unknown of this potential third party. “If we’re talking about the possibility for ICE to be involved, who knows what the third-party bias or motivations are going to be.” Stalworth said. “For me personally, and I think faculty agrees with this as well, the introduction of these third parties, at least in this way, is not beneficial.”
According to Stalworth, there is going to be a townhall meeting and information session dedicated to the Student Code of Conduct changes sometime in November with UW administration.
At the time of writing, the most recent notice from UW was posted on Oct. 20. In it, they state that the new window for public review and comment on the proposed amendments will run from Oct. 21, 2026, through Dec 10, 2026.
