Rollins College Campus Judicial Procedure
Most college students today have no idea that when he or she gets arrested outside of school grounds, the student can still have school punishment to deal with on top of the criminal justice violations. In other words, a student can be arrested and charged in the criminal justice system and go through the College’s hearing process as well. Rollins College is no exception to this rule. The Code of Community Standards “applies to students both on and off campus; therefore Rollins has the ability to hold students accountable for their behavior off campus”.
The judicial procedure at Rollins College is intended to be educational, not punitive. The punitive penalties will come from the criminal justice system, but Rollins College want the student to “better understand the impact of his or hers actions and help the individual take steps towards repairing the harm done to the Rollin’s community”. The only sanctions that will be reflected on the student’s transcripts are the suspension and expulsion. All of the other sanctions will not show up on their transcripts.
The student will receive a “charge letter” from the Office of Community Standards and Responsibility explaining violations. After receiving the charge letter the hearing process will start. The hearing will be over the violations of the Community Standards and Responsibility, which may or may not violate local, state or federal law. There are three different types of hearings when dealing with accused students. All of the hearings will be private, student may be accompanied by an advisor, and students may choose to not answer any or all questions during the hearing. The findings from the college hearing will not result in any criminal record. Also, the findings during the criminal hearing will not have any effect on the hearing for Rollins College. The students are able to have an advisor present in the hearing, but the advisor is not able to speak on behalf of the accused student.
Following the hearing, the student has the ability to appeal the hearing if he or she believes there was procedural misconduct by the hearing body, the sanctions imposed were inappropriate for the violations, and the preponderance of evidence standard. Once an appeal has been filed the Appellate Board will review the hearing. The Appellate Board may uphold, reduce or increase the sanctions imposed by the hearing board, but the decisions by the Appellate Board are final. After a decision has been made on the student’s case, sanctions will be in the near future. The sanctions at Rollins College are designed to be educational and help students learn from their mistakes. Several factors come into play when determining sanctions for the student: “the student’s prior judicial history, the severity of the incident, and College precedent for the violation”. The sanctions range from article reviews based on the student’s violation to suspension from Rollins College.
During the 2011-2012 school years, Rollins College has a total of 611 hearings. Students were sanctioned to punishments in 417 of the 611 hearings, 186 were not responsible for their actions, and 8 were pending on the verdict. A lawyer can be very helpful when dealing with the office of Community Standards and Responsibility. The lawyer will talk to the office of Community Standards and Responsibility on behalf of the accused student. Also, a lawyer can help the student to get less severe sanctions and not have the violation on the student’s transcript. People tend to forget about school sanctions after being arrested, but sometimes school sanctions can last longer and be more painful than criminal sanctions.
Source: Rollins College, “Hearing Process”, June 11, 2013