Conduct Processes

When a student is alleged to have violated one of the College’s policies, there are three processes by which a student’s case may be heard:

• Administrative Hearing
• Community Standards Council
• Honor Council

These three processes exist to ensure that there is diversity of thought when addressing alleged misconduct. These three processes exist under the purview of the Director of Community Standards (also referred to as the Judicial Officer) or their designee, and they are authorized by the Dean of Students. The Director of Community Standards may, in their complete discretion, designate which process an alleged violation of student conduct policy be addressed by.

All student conduct processes, while slightly different in nature, abide by the same standard of proof – a preponderance of the evidence, or “more likely than not”- to determine whether a student did or did not violate College policy.

Student conduct processes at Rhodes are not legal proceedings and so do not strictly adhere to the rules of evidence and procedure by which courts are governed.  For the same reasons, lawyers are not permitted to participate in student conduct processes at Rhodes.  Any advice or assistance a student requests from legal counsel must be obtained prior to the conduct process.

Students are expected to be responsive to College officials when a meeting is requested, and more specifically, students are asked to respond in a timely manner to emails and communication sent on behalf of the conduct process.

When a student chooses not to be responsive or elects not to participate in the conduct process, the College reserves the right to move forward with the process in absentia. This means that the Office of Community Standards will conduct an administrative hearing relying on the information they have already received about the incident.

If the College chooses to hold a hearing in absentia, the student will lose the ability to provide new information not brought out in the original hearing.

A student that is the subject of a pending College investigation may be ineligible to graduate from the College until the investigation is resolved. 

Amendments to the Disciplinary Violations, Disciplinary Sanctions, and Grounds for Appeal can be made at the discretion of Rhodes College.  If amendments are made, the updates will be added to the constitutions of the Honor Council and Community Standards Council, respectively.  These amendments will not require revisions and approval as outlined in Article V of the Honor Council/CSC constitutions.