FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON CONDUCT ISSUES
If your student lives on campus, KU Student housing is a great resource addressing roommate concerns and resolving conflicts. The KU Student Housing team works closely with SCCS to resolve concerns and conflicts among residents. We suggest you or your student share the concern with their complex director. The complex director will work with your student to identify possible solutions and create a living experience that is supportive for all residents.
If your student resides off campus, we suggest they reach out to our office for help. We are happy to review the situation and discuss the best possible resolution pathway. We know a student’s living experience directly impacts their academic success. SCCS is eager to work with students to create a conflict-free living and learning environment.
We believe physical or emotional harm is never a student’s fault, and we have a number of resources to support their wellbeing. This includes campus, community, and law enforcement resources. If your student is being harmed, please know we want to help. You can report the concern online, email, call, or stop by Strong Hall 134. We’ll work with you to learn more and identify a path forward. Our first priority is your student’s wellbeing. We’ll also address options for holding the other student accountable.
Please note SCCS staff are mandatory reporters. This means we may have to disclose details of your student’s situation to our Title IX coordinator, who supports nondiscrimination and accountability for the KU community. We value your student’s privacy and would only disclose the situation if someone is discriminating against your student, including sexual misconduct or physical gender-based discrimination. If this occurs, the Title IX coordinator will contact your student to share more information, resources, and options for next steps. Your student always has the right to not engage with the Title IX coordinator. Your student won’t be forced to engage in any university process, and their information won’t be shared beyond the Title IX coordinator and SCCS staff member.
Hearings are scheduled when there is a possible violation of the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities. This includes violations of KU Student Housing and other University policies. Hearings are meant to hold students accountable for their behavior while supporting the wellbeing of the Jayhawk community. SCCS does not have the power to subpoena or compel anyone to participate in a student conduct hearing. Our processes are voluntary, and all students have the right to not participate and/or not answer particular questions during the process. If your student chooses not to participate, this decision is not considered an acceptance of responsibility. It simply means we may not have their perspective on the situation.
We aren’t able to discuss specific details about your student’s case without their written permission. Students have the right to bring up to three advisors to their hearing. This may include family, friends, attorneys, etc. They are not required to bring anyone, and most students choose to attend the hearing alone. We’re happy to share more about the process for student conduct hearings, and you may read more about our processes and procedures online.
SCCS maintains conduct records for incidents where students are found responsible for violating university policies. This occurs as a result of informal or formal adjudication (hearings) and occasionally through shuttle diplomacy, depending on the terms negotiated between all parties. While we keep copies of all information shared with SCCS, students are only considered to have a disciplinary record if they have been found responsible for violating KU policies. SCCS keeps non-suspension and expulsion records for seven years. We keep suspension and expulsion records indefinitely. If your student’s incident was resolved through informal pathways, your student was a victim or witness in a case, or your student was found not responsible, they will not have a disciplinary record.
When students are found responsible for violating the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities, they are assigned accountability and educational sanctions designed to support their future success at KU. Each sanction comes with a deadline, and students receive a reminder before the sanction is due. If sanctions are not completed by the assigned deadline, students receive an enrollment hold to prevent future enrollment. This is labeled as a VPSA hold in Enroll and Pay.
SCCS is generally willing to grant students a temporary hold removal in order to facilitate their enrollment in the following semester’s courses. This is a one-time courtesy and should not be considered a default option. When requesting a temporary hold removal, students must articulate their plan to complete outstanding sanctions. Students may request a temporary hold removal online and should expect this process will take at least two business days.
SCCS believes families are important partners in a student’s academic success. While we cannot disclose details about a student’s conduct concerns, FERPA student privacy laws allow us to contact families in the event of repeated drug or alcohol emergencies. SCCS notifies a student’s parents or guardians of drug and alcohol violations if your student has two or more responsible findings in an academic year. We send these letters after the second or more responsible findings. Often, this means there is a delay in notifying you of the violations. If your student was found responsible for violating the drug and alcohol policy in August and then again in March, you’ll receive the letter in April. We hope you will use this opportunity to talk with your student about expectations for alcohol and drug behaviors and the impact on their academic success.
If your student has been invited to a hearing and they substantially agree with the allegations, we recommend encouraging them to attend the hearing and share their perspective. SCCS believes all reports we receive are written from one person’s perspective. Our work is most effective when we have all possible perspectives on a situation. Your student has the right to attend the hearing, review any information we have, and question anything we’ve received. Additionally, your student can submit their own materials to our case file. If they have information that adds to or contradicts the allegations, they are encouraged to share those materials with their hearing officer. The hearing officer will carefully review all available information and ask your student questions to learn more about the incident.
Following the hearing, your student will receive an outcome letter with the hearing results and any required sanctions. The outcome letter also includes instructions on how to appeal the decision, should your student wish to do so.
- Hazing is never tolerated at KU, and we depend on all members of the KU community to help us end hazing at KU. Hazing is never a student’s fault, and students should never be physically or emotionally harmed in order to gain acceptance in a group. Similarly, students’ willingness to participate in hazing behaviors or earn membership based upon completing certain tasks does not excuse hazing. Regardless of the participant’s willingness, hazing is never okay.
If your student is experiencing hazing, please consider sharing the information with us. You can do this by reporting online, emailing, calling, or visiting Strong Hall 134. When reporting hazing, we urge to you provide as many details as possible. This may include names, dates, screen shots, photos, etc. The more information we have, the more effectively we can intervene and end hazing behaviors. A report indicating a particular group is hazing people without providing any additional information is extremely difficult to act upon, while one with more information about the hazing behaviors supports accountability throughout the process.
After we receive a hazing report, we review the information and work to learn more about the situation. This may include reviewing previous related reports, talking with colleagues across campus, or other methods. We’ll then contact the chapter advisor and president. Sometimes we launch a formal investigation, and in other situations we have enough information to schedule a hearing. We work hard to protect the reporting party’s identity through this process, though our most effective hearings do involve participation from the harmed and/or reporting parties. We will keep you informed throughout the process and present you with numerous options for how you participate, all of which is voluntary.