Guide To Residential Life: Conduct Accountability Procedures
The goal of the student conduct process is to ensure that community standards are maintained in the Stockton community. Conduct hearing officers partner with students in navigating the accountability process to ensure that they are able to build the skills and knowledge that allow them to positively contribute to their community, and restore any harm that may have been caused to an individual or to the community.
Violations of the Guide to Residential Life or Code of Conduct are called to the attention of the Office of Residential Life and/or the Office of Student Conduct. In all instances, an alleged violation of the policies will result in an investigation. A student is presumed not in violation until found in violation. The standard of proof used at Stockton University is a preponderance of evidence. This means that in order for a student to be found responsible or not responsible it needs to be “more likely than not”, based on the evidence presented, that a policy was violated or not for a student to be found in that way. For students found responsible for the charges they are assigned, sanctions may be applied individually or in combination as appropriate to a given case.
Incident Reports
An incident report is used for documenting and reporting all levels of events such as Code of Conduct, bias, fire, theft, vandalism, behavioral incidents, medical emergencies, etc. The form is typically completed by those staff members who have initial contact with the incident, or directly by a student.
Stockton students have the ability to submit a code of conduct complaint form in the gostockton portal.
Student Notification
Following the occurrence of an incident involving a possible standard or Code of Conduct violation, the student shall receive a notice informing them of a forthcoming conference or pre-hearing interview appointment. The notice will indicate the time, date and location required to meet with the respective staff. If and when an appointment conflicts with the student’s schedule, it will be the student’s responsibility to notify the staff to reschedule the appointment.
One attempt will be made to notify the student. Following a single unsuccessful attempt, a decision will be made concerning the alleged violation(s) without the student’s input and/or presence.
Residential Life Administrative Hearings
Depending on the nature of the incident, the administrative meeting may be scheduled with any of the following individuals: Coordinators, Assistant Director of Residential Life, Director Of Residential Education and Student Services, - Atlantic City Operations, Director of Operations and Retention, Assistant Vice President of Student Living and Learning/Executive Director of Residential Life or a member of the Dean of Students’ staff. Failure to schedule a meeting within the designated time frame or failure to attend a scheduled meeting time may result in the meeting being held in the student’s absence, and if necessary, a sanction(s) being issued. The Assistant Vice President of Student Living and Learning/Executive Director of Residential Life in consultation with the Dean of Students may, at any time, terminate a student’s residence contract immediately, when it is deemed in the best interest of the Residential Life Community. The student may need to vacate the premises immediately.
Referral Process
A Residential Life administrator will review incident reports and determine if conduct resolution action is appropriate. The conduct resolution venues within the Office Of Residential Life Include pre-hearing meetings, administrative hearings. Residential Life administrators have the prerogative to refer an incident to another office within the university for resolution. There may be occasion when university officials (E.G., Campus Police) refer a housing incident to another office within the university for resolution. Cases involving charges that could result in any separation from housing and/or the university will be referred to the Student Conduct Office for processing.
The Office of Residential Life also works very closely with the Director of Title IX and EEO when reports need to be directed to that office. More information about the University's Title IX process can be found here.
Campus Hearing Board
Please visit the student conduct website for more information.
Notification of University Personnel
University personnel will utilize administrative discretion and may decide to contact other university officials such as counseling staff, athletics staff or academic administrators regarding student conduct or conduct resolution issues.
Outcome Letters
A student will receive a decision letter when the resolution process is complete via stockton email. A decision letter will provide the student with a summary of standard or code of conduct violations, sanctions and appeal information. Timeliness will be emphasized in the delivery of decision letters at the conclusion of a disciplinary investigation.
Residential Life Sanctions
Students sanctioned with community service are required to complete an online learning module and no less than 7 hours of community service. These hours may be increased based on charges and the discretion of the hearing officer or board.
One of the consequences of inappropriate behavior or violations of standard or code of conduct can be a fine or restitution. This does not alleviate a student from any further liability. Fines are a direct consequence of inappropriate behavior and are assessed to reduce the occurrence of the behavior. Billing for damages represents restitution that will eventually result in replacement or repair of an item. Fines are charged directly to a student’s account.
Non-residential violators (students or non-students) may be sanctioned with a loss of housing visitation. This means that person is not able to enter the housing area including buildings, lounges, common spaces, and parking lots.
Residential students who are sanctioned with loss of guest privileges are unable to host any guests. A guest is any person (student or non student) who does not live in your residential space.
In cases where the Assistant Vice President of Student Living and Learning/Executive Director of Residential Life or their designee makes a judgment that the presence of an alleged student violator of the Campus Conduct Code or Residential Life standards or procedures, presents an imminent danger to an individual and/or others on the campus, or to the orderly conduct of the university, or is a threat to the health and safety of themselves or others, the accused student may be temporarily suspended from housing pending a hearing.
Certain disciplinary action could result in the termination of the Residence Hall Contract. When a student is removed from housing, the student is also banned from the residential areas of campus including the green areas and parking lots around the residence halls. When a student is removed from housing, the student forfeits the entire amount of the academic year housing agreement and is required to continue to pay for housing through the end of the contracted agreement. Removal from housing is considered permanent unless an appeal is granted by the Dean Of Students.
If a student fails to complete community service hours and/or designated projects by the deadline stated by the sanction, additional conduct resolution action may be taken. This additional action may result in the student account being placed on hold, parental contact, termination of housing or more severe sanctions up to and including expulsion from the university.
Appeal Process
Students are given the opportunity to appeal a staff’s conduct resolution decision to the Director of Residential Education and Student Services or their designee. When action is taken by an director, an appeal can be submitted to the Assistant Vice President of Student Living and Learning/Executive Director of Residential Life within (5) business days in writing or email.
A Student shall have the right to appeal on the basis that the states University process was not followed. The student must demonstrate that there was substantial and pre-conduct resolution failure to follow procedures.
