By Cheyene Miller

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UK recently created two websites that will allow students and faculty to report student code violations and tobacco use on campus.

The Office of Student Conduct website allows students to anonymously report violations of the code of conduct, which recently underwent a slight change to allow for new campus safety measures, online.

“We have had for many, many years a code of student conduct,” wrote UK spokesperson Jay Blanton in an email to the Kentucky Kernel. “And we’ve also had that code online for some time. A new wrinkle this year is that we have created the ability for the campus community to report violations of that code where they see it and where such violations may exist.”

The report form requires students to give contact information for follow-up questions about the report, information about the alleged instigators and any documentation they have of the incident.

The student conduct website is part of a broad, long-term implementation of health and safety policies on campus, which have been worked on for more than a year, Blanton wrote in the email. “Two different committees — composed of faculty, students, staff, community members and city officials — have been reviewing health and safety policies, including alcohol use, both at UK and on other campuses to determine best practices,” Blanton wrote.

The tobacco-free policy online report form is aimed at further reducing tobacco use on campus, a violation that has been prohibited for five years.

“The tobacco-free violation report line has been available for about two-to-three years,” said Ellen J. Hahn, director of the Kentucky Center for Smoke Free Policy.“More recently, we have added an online form to make it easier for people to report violators of the tobacco-free campus.”

Reporters are asked to provide specific location and appearance information of any smokers they spot, as well as contact information and whether or not they informed the person of the tobacco ban on campus.

Violators of the tobacco-free policy are reported to the Dean of Students and can face fines or disciplinary action, according to a campus-wide email about the online report form sent out Friday. UK employees must also obey the policy, and are reported to and disciplined by the Human Resources office upon any violations.

The reports made to the online forms will be investigated as thoroughly as a phone call or email would be, Blanton said.

“We all must be accountable for one another, willing to look (out) for each other to ensure everyone’s safety,” Blanton wrote in the email. “This is simply a tool toward that end.”