The Student Association senate decided Sunday by a vote of acclamation to send a letter to the University Council expressing displeasure about possible changes that could take away students’ rights in appealing decisions regarding illegal class registration.

At Sunday night’s SA meeting, Student Regent Nick Valadez said the council is considering taking illegal class registration cases out of the jurisdiction of the Judicial Code. Valadez said that if an academic misconduct charge is raised against a student, the Judicial Office would decide the student’s guilt or innocence while the faculty members would decide the sanction. There would not be an appeals process, he said.

Valadez told the senate that NIU faculty want to “shift the balance of due process” by taking away the Judicial Office’s power to accept appeals and to issue “mediate sanctions.”

The possible changes by the council were prompted after more than 100 students illegally registered into spring 1988 classes using a fraudulent “REG” stamp.

“The faculty feels the Judicial Office was lenient on certain students and they shouldn’t be,” thus explaining the possible changes being considered by the council, Valadez said.

SA President Paula Radtke said, however, illegal registration for a class does not fall under the category of academic misconduct, but rather under falsification of university documents.

Valadez said, “There was no picnic for those charged” in last semester’s “REG” stamp violations. “For the most part, all students were found guilty and all students lost (class) credit.”

In other business, SA Welfare Adviser Lisa Gunn informed the senate the welfare committee had spoken with RAMTECH Co. in Rhode Island about the purchase and implementation of a security phone system on campus.

The system would have phones that would be linked directly to the University Police headquarters placed throughout campus. The system could be used by students afraid of a sexual assualt or rape, students who might need general information from UPs or students having car troubles in remote parking lots, she said.

Gunn said the committee is looking into alternative funding possibilities before asking the student body to pay for the phone system. The purchasing and installation of the phone system would initially cost between about $50,000 and $55,000, she said.