The AMS ed an amendment at last week’s Assembly to change its policy on dealing with weapons on campus.
The amendment of the AMS Constitution, ed in its first reading, states that the AMS Judicial Committee won’t hear cases of “use or possession of weapons (as defined by the Queen’s University Weapons Policy).”
The amendment to section 10.02.02 of the Constitution follows an agreement between the AMS and Principal Daniel Woolf over AMS Non-Academic Discipline (NAD), a peer-judicial system.
It was finalized in September after 18 months of discussion.
NAD, which is complaint-driven, typically deals with issues of public disturbance, illegal possession and consumption of alcohol, and vandalism. It reports to the Senate Committee on Non-Academic Discipline (SONAD).
If the amendment es in its second reading at Assembly on April 4, investigations into such cases involving weapons on campus would be forwarded to the Provost, Campus Security or Kingston Police, according to Liam Faught, AMS commissioner of internal affairs.
“In of student safety in the immediate sense, the AMS is not equipped to deal with this,” Faught, ArtSci ’14 said. “In the past we have recognized that we shouldn’t deal with these things, [and] we are formalizing that in our constitution which is an important step to take.”
The Committee also doesn’t deal with cases involving blatant discrimination, harassment, sexual assault, serious assault of a non-sexual nature and murder, unless referred to by SONAD.
Prior to the ed amendment, students guilty of violating Queen’s Weapons Policy would formally be subjected to NAD; however, the AMS hasn’t dealt with these cases for the last few years, Faught said.
“I wouldn’t want to say 100 per cent that we never had a case where a weapon was somehow involved,” Faught said.
He added that if there had been an instance where student
safety was at risk and a weapon was involved, Kingston Police, Campus Security or the istration would have been notified.
The amendment signifies a positive relationship between the AMS and the University, he added.
“At the end of the day the NAD system is delegated from University Senate, so we are dependent on that trust from the ,” he said. “When we have opportunities like this to cooperate and formalize these kind of details, we jump at those chances.”
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