It should come as no surprise that the most recurring incident at Ball State is underage drinking.
But no matter what the code of conduct violation is, students go through the same process to determine the end result.
For underage drinking, most students will admit to the violation, said Mike Gillilan, director of student rights and community standards.
Ball State's student conduct process is the first thing the Office of Student Rights and Community Standards refers to when handling situations, especially underage drinking, which are mainly referred to the university by law enforcement.
Ball State has jurisdiction over complaints referred to the university from police.
Gillilan said the ultimate goal is to help students be successful at school, as well as have a safe, effective learning environment.
“I’m not going to say to someone underage drinking makes them unsuccessful, because that is just not true,” Gillilan said.
Depending upon the location and severity of the incident, different offices will handle it. If underage drinking occurs in the residence halls, Housing and Residence Life deals with the violation. Each location has a similar student conduct process they follow.
Student recreation also has a process because they might have high tensions after a sporting event that could result in a fight or property from the facility being stolen. Student organizations fall under the Office of Student Life and have two different boards students can refer to, if necessary.
Gillilan said just like any other college or university, Ball State has the opportunity to have higher expectations of students.
“If student were to cheat on a test that is a violation of academic ethics policy under code of conduct but is handled by another board,” Gillilan said. “If student contests it, there's an academic ethics board that handles that.”
At the academic ethics board, that student has the opportunity to say he or she did it and take the failing grade.
With any situation, students are asked to come speak on their own behalf. Gillilan said it is in the student's best interest to give his or her side of the story.
“We ask students accused to come and see us, but the student doesn’t have to,” Gillilan said. “We will move forward with or without them, at this point we are investigating a complaint.”
The investigation step includes trying to understand what happened, who was involved and if there is enough information to charge a student with a violation. If a student is charged with a violation, they will receive some sort of punishment as a result.
When a student is charged with a violation, the finding is based on a preponderance of evidence standard. Student are notified of the violation in writing.
Once a violation has been determined, the student can decide to seek either an informal or formal resolution. Informally, the student is claiming responsibility for the action. Formally, a student can appeal the punishment and get a hearing in front of the board.
“What we do about [the situation] is really [the] art of what we do,” Gillilan said. “We’re trying to accomplish a lot of things.”
A student can appeal the sanction, but cannot appeal the part where they said they took responsibility. All of the boards do relatively the same thing when making a decision whether the student is responsible for a violation or not.
There are criteria that must be met in order for an appealed sanction to result in favor of the student: substantial error in process, basis of the sanctions are too severe or some kind of bias.
“Anybody can make [a] complaint against another student under the code of conduct,” Gillilan said. “[It] could be another student, police, faculty or somebody not associated with Ball State.”
The Sexual Harassment and Misconduct Response to Students process is slightly different than the Ball State Student Conduct Process. If a student reports sexual misconduct, they have the option to report it to off-campus resources. If it is reported to the police, they have a federal obligation to report it to the Title IX coordinator. The student has full control in deciding what steps to take during this situation.
“With sexual misconduct, that's an automatic referral to the Title IX office and may or may not come here,” Gillilan said. “Generally, if it's being referred from another office, it’s fairly serious or a technical thing, and they don’t have jurisdiction over it.”
The university aims to work with the student and accomplish whatever it is that he or she wants to accomplish unless it is perceived as a continuing threat to other students. However, that call is rarely made.
In regards to every violation, there are few appeals made by students unless it involves a suspension or expulsion from the university.
“I’ve been here five and a half years, and I think we’ve expelled five students total, and each time it’s usually been for violation of our sexual misconduct policy,” Gillilan said.
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