A University of Wisconsin System committee traveled to UW-Milwaukee Monday to hear public feedback on whether the Board of Regents should amend its student nonacademic misconduct policies.

Currently, system administrative code only addresses students and nonstudents' conduct on university property, leading some officials to propose stricter punishments for inappropriate student conduct off campus.

The Board of Regents formed a committee of system administrators, officials from several universities and two students to conduct public listening sessions.

The committee's job is to collect public opinion and then recommend revisions to the UW System's administrative code governing student nonacademic disciplinary procedures.

According to Jessica Tormey, UW System spokesperson, the committee has held two listening sessions — one at UW-Stevens Point last week and one at UWM.

Tormey said the committee might decide whether or not to submit any proposed changes to the Board of Regents. If accepted by the regents, the system-wide policy changes would have to be approved by the state Legislature.

At this stage in the process, Tormey said officials from UWM and neighborhood residents came out Monday in favor of enforcing stricter standards for off-campus behavior.

Tom Luljak, UWM's vice chancellor for university relations and communications, said UWM favors changes that would allow the university to take disciplinary action against "egregious and chronic negative conduct."

Luljak said current policies do allow the university to take action for misconduct if it is directed at another student.

However, he added that if the behavior is targeted at an individual who is not associated with the university, administrators are limited in the disciplinary action they can take.

"Students have told us that they do not care what they do because the university cannot do anything about it," Luljak said. "This is the problem … it does not take but a few students acting irresponsibly to cause problems for everyone."

Luljak said the vast majority of UWM students are terrific people who cause no problems on or off campus.

He added that the ability to punish students for certain off-campus behavior would likely affect only a small number of students.

"Changing [the policies] would give us greater ability to deal with serious misconduct," Luljak said. "This is not aimed at a student who plays music too loud and is given a noise violation, but rather aimed at students who are causing serious problems, including endangering the safety and well-being of other people."

Since the UWM campus is mixed with residential neighborhoods, Luljak said student activities have an effect on the university's standing with surrounding residents.

Dale Burke, assistant chief of the UW-Madison Police Department and a committee member, said some students at Monday's meeting opposed the policy changes, saying they could constitute a form of double jeopardy and an invasion of privacy.

"I think the issue in Milwaukee has been building for years and the sides are very polarized," Burke said. "The problem is a much deeper and broader issue than [the proposed changes]."

Now that the listening sessions have concluded, Burke said committee members would continue to meet and discuss the input they received. He added most of the comments have been directed at how far the university should go to control students' off-campus behavior.

Despite the focus on off-campus student behavior, Burke said there are a lot of other misconduct policies that can be improved.