When a student is alleged to have violated one of the College’s policies, there are resolution processes by which a student’s case may be heard:
- Informal Resolution Processes:
- Formal Resolution Processes:
These processes exist to ensure that there is diversity of thought when addressing alleged misconduct. These processes exist under the purview of the Director of Community Standards (also referred to as the OCS Administrator) 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 resolution 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 required to be responsive to College officials when a meeting is requested, and more specifically, students must 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 a 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.