ARTICLE VIII – DISCIPLINARY RECORDS Disciplinary action plan and/or statuses, with the exception of University expulsion, shall not be made part of the student’s permanent academic record (official transcript), but shall become part of the student’s confidential disciplinary record, subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Pending cases will be retained as long as is administratively necessary as determined by the Conduct Administrator. Cases involving expulsion or suspension will be retained indefinitely. Other student conduct files will be retained for seven (7) years following the incident or until the student leaves the University, whichever is longer. If a student under the age of twenty-one (21) is found responsible for a violation of University policy involving alcohol and/or other drugs, the University may notify the student’s parent(s) or guardian(s). A student may appeal this process. Once the student has been given official notification of Parental Notification, the student has a period of three (3) business days to send a letter explaining his/her desire to appeal the policy to the Dean of Students. Removal Twelve months after completion of any imposed sanction(s), a student may request in writing to the Office of Student Ethics & Education that a minor conduct violation be removed from his/her student disciplinary file. In the written request, the student should include what he/she has learned from the incident, how his/her behavior has changed since the incident and any steps taken to address the behavior. Generally, removal is not available if the student’s record includes more than one violation of the Code of Student Conduct; sanction(s) that were not completed by the required deadline; an incident resulting in personal injury, property damage, providing alcohol to minors, possession and/or distribution of drugs; violation of the weapons policy, disorderly conduct; sexual misconduct; discrimination; harassment; criminal behavior; or suspension/expulsion. All removal decisions shall be made at the sole discretion of the Dean of Students. The Office of Student Ethics and Education will attempt to avoid releasing a removed violation pursuant to third-party requests, but will, when it deems necessary, offer an explanation of the removal process in response to third-party requests. If a removed violation is disclosed, as required by law or otherwise, it will be done in the sole discretion of the Office of Student Ethics and Education and will include an explanation that the violation has been removed from the student’s disciplinary record pursuant to this provision. In addition, reports and/or other correspondences maintained by other University departments, local and/or campus police, or another reporting agency are not subject to this removal provision. Further, previous disciplinary record checks reported by the Office of Student Ethics and Education or another University department will not be affected by this process.
