Guaranteeing due process for students
The most vulnerable members of the Dartmouth family are students currently at the College, and they are crying out for protection against a secretive disciplinary process that many fear may be running amok. Students are so worried in this regard that the Student Assembly felt obligated to convene a task force last year to look into the defects of the College’s disciplinary process and to make recommendations designed to make the process more fair and hence less prone to erroneous or unjust results. As the student task force wrote in its 2006 report, “students are fearful that…their experience at Dartmouth could be ruined by the unjust outcome of a [Committee on Standards] hearing.” (Committee on Standards Student Task Force Report, Dartmouth College Student Assembly, Oct. 10, 2006.)
This fear is so widespread that it has its own term in Dartmouth-speak. Consider the following entry in the Dartmouth dictionary from 2002: “Parkhurst (verb) (to get Parkhursted): An interesting leave term option available at Dartmouth named for Parkhurst Hall, the building which houses dozens of domineering Dartmouth deans. To have the administration tell–not ask– you to take a bit of a vacation. Not advised.”
The definition is humorously put, but it reflects a reality on campus that is anything but amusing: students are afraid of being unfairly disciplined by a process in which students feel defenseless and presumed guilty. This fear has ramifications for freedom of expression on campus, and for student life as well.
Students have every reason to be concerned about the disciplinary process because the College is being much more aggressive in using it to punish students. As The Dartmouth reported in a story by Michael Herman ‘07 dated October 17, 2006, in the 2004-05 academic year, 537 students received some form of official discipline. To put that number in perspective, ”[t]hat means that greater than one out of every eight Dartmouth students was punished by Dartmouth’s disciplinary system in that year alone.” The Dartmouth, Oct. 17, 2006.
The majority of the discipline cases don’t involve conduct that has absolutely no place on campus or in society, such as ual assault, crimes, or cheating, but rather social drinking on campus. According to an October 6, 2004 article in The Dartmouth, “[i]t might not come as much of a surprise to students,” but “[f]or the third straight year, roughly 60 percent of the cases entering the disciplinary system this past academic year resulted in students being found responsible for either public intoxication or underage possession of alcohol.”
After investigating the disciplinary process, the Student Assembly’s task force issued a report recommending eight different changes designed to allay widespread student fears of being “Parkhursted.” Among the recommendations were the following: (1) give accused students the right to question witnesses against them in a respectful manner; (2) inform accused students of all applicable precedents governing their cases; and (3) allow all students who’ve opted, for privacy reasons, to have a “closed” COS hearing the right to bring an attorney or others to assist them in mounting a defense. The report was approved by a lopsided vote of 30-3.
I share the Student Assembly’s concerns. I would work to implement each of the three student recommendations previously mentioned. The other recommendations are also worthy of serious consideration by the College. I regard this as a matter of basic fairness. The College should treat its students with the same respect it demands of them.
Students understandably experience a range of emotions, such as happiness and joy, when they walk onto the Dartmouth campus. Fear of any kind–and especially fear of what their own College might do to them–should not be among them.
Click here to read the COS Task Force Report in full.
I am pleased to report that my stance on disciplinary process reform earned me the endorsement of the Chair of the COS Task Force, Adam Shpeen ‘07. Mr. Shpeen wrote, in part, the following:
“Smith was the first candidate to draw attention to this issue and is the only candidate who has unequivocally supported the report’s recommendations and has pledged to seek their implementation. Smith’s boldness on an issue that has an enormous effect on all students at Dartmouth is truly noteworthy.
“In the coming weeks, I hope that alumni do not lose sight of the issues that Dartmouth students, current and future, are concerned about. The disciplinary system at Dartmouth has to change, and the Board of Trustees ought to be involved in encouraging and monitoring such a change. Smith would be instrumental in this process.”
The endorsement is available on the Internet at http://thedartmouth.com/2007/04/12/opinion/overseeing/print/.
