A letter by the Student Association senate critical of the University Council’s discussion about removing the Judicial Office’s role in fraudalent registration classes is short-sighted.

The letter states the SA is “vehemently against the elimination of any appeal rights that students have,” and that “no changes be made that would systematically treat all offenders alike.” But such changes are appropriate.

NIU’s 1988-89 Undergraduate Catalog states that “students will not receive credit for any courses for which registration is not completed.”

When Registration and Records discovered that about 100 students had registered into classes with the fraudulent use of a “REG” stamp, they should immediately have told the students to quit attending those classes and refunded the unused portion of the cost of the class—no questions asked.

Instead, students were allowed to complete the classes, and it was up to the Judicial Office to determine if they would receive credit for the classes.

Students shouldn’t have been allowed to finish the classes in the first place. There is no reason for NIU to allow students to continue to steal resources such as teachers’ time and classroom space until the judicial office decides that such theft of services is a crime.

The judicial office would be involved later. Because of the severity of the crime, NIU most likely would pursue sanctions along with the immediate removal from the class. Such sanctions must be imposed by the judicial office.

Allowing Registration and Records to enforce NIU’s regulations and not allowing students to continue to take classes they obtained illegally does not remove a student’s right to appeal a guilty decision.