Purpose
- Residential peer accountability: Residential students will be able to resolve allegations of misconduct within the residence halls by determining whether a peer is responsible for a violation of policy and recommending educational sanctions, if applicable.
Importance
- This is a great way for students to serve the community by promoting safety, trust, accountability, and respect within the residence halls.
Board Makeup
- ResBoard shall be composed of three (3) to five (5) residential students selected and trained by Housing and Residence Life (HRL) and the office of Student Conduct. One ResBoard member shall be appointed by the advisor, or designee, to serve as chair for that hearing. Members who have a conflict of interest should disqualify themselves from the board.
- The Coordinator of Community Standards or designee shall serve as an advisor to ResBoard, and may attend and advise board hearings. The advisor may ask questions at the board hearings.
Board Chair
- The ResBoard chair speaks for the body in all exchanges, facilitates proceedings, and has the authority to decide whether information presented is relevant.
Procedures
- Notification
- A hearing officer will review a referral of alleged misconduct. If there is enough information to proceed, a hearing officer will determine the charges against the respondent and make the determination regarding next steps:
- HRL can elect to have the case heard before a ResBoard and provide written notice stating such.
- HRL can determine a violation has occurred and move forward with the auto-responsibility resolution track.
- A hearing officer will review a referral of alleged misconduct. If there is enough information to proceed, a hearing officer will determine the charges against the respondent and make the determination regarding next steps:
- Timeline
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- ResBoard hearings are subject to student availability (which may be limited at times such as during final exams, summer sessions, or when classes are not in session). If it is not possible to assemble a board with 3 or more members on the scheduled date of the hearing, the respondent may consent to proceed with a 2-member board, provided that the respondent provides such consent in writing. If the respondent does not consent, then the board hearing will be rescheduled.
- In general, requests to postpone a hearing will be granted only for an academic or medical reason.
- At any time, a respondent may choose to accept responsibility for the charges. In such case, the hearing officer will determine sanctions, or in the case of a ResBoard hearing, the board will recommend sanctions to the advisor, which will determine sanctions.
- Witnesses & Advisors
- Only the respondent, the respondent’s advisor and witnesses (if any), and complainants (if any) shall be permitted to attend the hearing. The board advisor may invite observers to attend a ResBoard hearing.
- Witnesses may not appear in person unless the ResBoard chair determines, after reviewing the witness statement, that such an appearance may be helpful to the determination of the case. Character witnesses are not allowed and will not be taken into consideration when determining responsibility or sanction(s). The relevancy of witness information will be evaluated by the Chair.
- Hearing
- A complaining party will not be required to be present for the hearing. The submitted incident report narrative will serve as the complaining information. The only time when a complainant will be required to be present is when it is a peer-to-peer accusation.
- At the ResBoard Hearing, the respondent and complainant may present and explain all written materials, evidence, and statements. The chair may limit the evidence presented, or direct the Respondent to proceed, if the information presented is irrelevant or redundant.
- The ResBoard shall consider all charges against the respondent. Board members can ask questions of all witnesses, complainants, and the respondent.
- If a respondent decides not to participate in the hearing, or does not provide information requested by the board, the board will render a decision in the absence of such information.
- The decision of the ResBoard shall be by majority vote. If the board finds the respondent responsible, board shall recommend sanctions to the advisor, or designee. The advisor, or designee, will provide the student the decision letter.
- Appeals of board decisions will be based on the current grounds for appeal and will be routed through the appeals process for review.