Sussex SU celebrates positive changes to our disciplinary rules

Changes include repealing major misconduct charges for protesting and revising sexual misconduct procedures


The Students’ Union announced on Friday that it had helped secure a number of positive changes to the University’s existing disciplinary procedure.

Most notably, peaceful protest would be no longer subject students to the risk of being charged with ‘major misconduct’ (and possibly being expelled).

This particular change was driven by Activities Officer Lyndsay Burtonshaw’s condemnation of the university’s proposal to charge students who peacefully occupy buildings with major misconduct.

Supported by her fellow officers, Burtonshaw said: “I support students’ right and ability to participate in non-violent protest on the issues that matter to them. Occupations have a long standing tradition in the history of Sussex students’ activism on campus. Occupations are by design disruptive, as a last resort tactic, and can be highly effective when students feel their voices are not heard.”

Peaceful protests and building occupations have long been part of Sussex students’ efforts to ensure that student voices are heard and respected. Protecting students’ right to protest and assemble is instrumental for maintaining a good relationship between the University and the Students’ Union, as well as securing democratic principles that enable constructive discourse.

Further changes suggested by the union have been implemented, most of which concerned improving the procedure for students seeking to report incidents of domestic or sexual abuse.

Most of these recommendations were based on the NUS’s #StandByMe campaign, which called for universities to scrap their existing student disciplinary procedures for sexual misconduct. These changes include:

  1. Explicitly categorising sexual harassment and sexual violence as examples of major misconduct. Students charged as such can be excluded, suspended or fined by the University.
  2. Comprehensively training staff and Union officers involved in the procedure of counselling affected students, to ensure the efficacy of student support.
  3. A change in how Student Discipline Panels work, specifically that victims will no longer have to confront their alleged perpetrator in major misconduct cases.
  4. The addition of a ‘Precautionary Action’ period for students accused of major misconduct, enabling the Vice-Chancellor to suspend the alleged perpetrator for a specific period, or until criminal or disciplinary proceedings conclude.
  5. Considering the shortcomings of the criminal justice system if a case does not result in conviction. The University may still take their own disciplinary action if they believe that there are outstanding matters of concern which haven’t been addressed. This is based on evidence which shows that up to 82% of rapes go unreported to police and of these only a fifth result in court proceedings.

These changes aim to make the process of reporting sexual misconduct much less daunting and ultimately ensure greater justice for victims. They aim to make the process safer and encourage more students to come forward if something happens. USSU Welfare Officer Rianna Gargiulo stated:

“I really hope that, with both a new disciplinary regulation and a joint work on with the University to educate new students about what consent is, we will see an increase in the number of students feeling able to report sexual and domestic abuse through the University’s internal disciplinary procedure.”

The overall revision of the disciplinary rules around protesting have been made in the interests of us students, so that we can continue to be our typical, political, authority-challenging Sussex selves. In terms of sexual misconduct, this revision aims to ensure security for all students as well as a trustworthy and confidential method of reporting cases.