The Ad Board may hear some cheating cases if they do not fall clearly within the upcoming student-faculty honor council’s jurisdiction.

Discipline cases take up the majority of the Board’s time, according to Michael C. Ranen, the freshman resident dean for Ivy Yard and a member of the body. When the Ad Board investigated sexual assault cases, they took up a small proportion of its caseload, but they were especially time consuming, said Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman ’67.

With neither academic nor sexual assault investigations within the Ad Board’s jurisdiction, its focus will inevitably shift, something current and past members acknowledge.

“The Ad Board itself may spend more of its time on the review of requests for exceptions to rules and more on some of the social discipline, things like tampering with fire safety equipment,” said Dingman, who sits on the Board.

“It’s a huge, huge change,” added Richard M. Losick, a biology professor who previously sat on the Ad Board as a faculty member and has advised students who went before it.

Like other administrators, Interim Secretary of the Ad Board Brett Flehinger characterized the upcoming changes to the Board positively. He suggested that the shift in jurisdiction will allow it to focus more on its educational mission. The lightened caseload will help the Board “focus our energy and do our jobs better,” he said.

IMAGE MAKEOVER

Despite its supposed educational mission, the Ad Board has long been dogged by an image problem. Critics question its transparency, and students associate it not with study cards, but with plagiarism investigations and required leaves from school.

The Ad Board’s reputation as a cheating board will be up in the air as the upcoming honor council takes on the task of hearing academic discipline cases. To some administrators, this shift is a chance for the Ad Board to rebrand itself.

Dingman said he hopes the changes will spur a shift in how students perceive the Board. “I think there’s a good likelihood there will be” a change, he added.

Losick imagines that as current students graduate from the College, they will take with them the perception of the “old” Ad Board, while future students will see something different.

“In a few years, the student body will change, and they won’t have the memory of an earlier era,” Losick said.

Peter F. Lake '81, a professor at Stetson University College of Law who specializes in higher education law, said it’s difficult to predict the Ad Board’s future while much remains to be seen. Details about the honor council, which will hear cheating cases next year, are still being finalized; it is likely that the Ad Board and honor council’s memberships will overlap. But Lake added that the future Board could differ dramatically.

“The future of the Ad Board could be so different that it won’t make the front page of The Crimson anymore,” Lake said.

—Staff writer Madeline R. Conway can be reached at mconway@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @MadelineRConway.

—Staff writer Steven S. Lee can be reached at steven.lee@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenSJLee.