A message from University leadership: Adapting the Student Conduct process

Dear Carolina community,

For decades, our student leaders have helped us steadfastly uphold our University’s honor system — a longstanding tradition at Carolina. We appreciate the hard work of our students who provide many hours of dedicated service to support the growing and complicated portfolio of cases that come before them.

In recent years, there have been concerns and conversations about rising student adjudicator workloads, the average 100 days it takes to reach case resolutions and an increasingly complex legal landscape for students to navigate.

In an effort to improve this system for the benefit of students, faculty and staff, we will work to address the following objectives over the coming weeks.

• Provide clearer policies and protocols that are more efficient, fair and less demanding of students.
• Address inconsistencies and confusion inherent in a decentralized student conduct process that encompasses several policies, all with distinct standards of evidence, timelines and other requirements.
• Reduce the significant workload created for student leaders who manage these efforts and serve in attorney general roles, recognizing that student conduct cases today are more complex, involve more nuanced legal concerns, including implications for civil and criminal proceedings, and are increasingly regulated by external authorities.
• Ensure that students and faculty continue to remain directly and actively involved.

To this end, we have begun talking to leaders of stakeholder groups and others about a plan to shift the Student Conduct processes to a conduct board model that reflects national best practice and is designed to better serve students involved in cases.

In this model, hearings and related processes would be guided by University staff to ensure consistency across cases and to reduce unreasonable burden on student adjudicators. An advisory board of students, faculty and staff would convene to provide ongoing counsel and feedback to Student Affairs and the Student Conduct teams.

These changes would bring the University into alignment with peer institutions across the country and other campuses within the UNC System.

Over the next several weeks, we will continue to consult with student, faculty and staff leaders and other key stakeholders to discuss the plans for the new process. We have developed an FAQ page with additional information, which we will continue to update as input is collected and progress is made. We welcome feedback or suggestions based on experiences with the current process at studentconduct@unc.edu.

We understand that a change to a longstanding policy merits time for our Carolina community to transition and adapt. Upholding our University’s strong tradition of honor and academic integrity is essential. With your help, we will ensure that our community continues to maintain a fair, educational and efficient process that serves the long-term success of our students.

Sincerely,

J. Christopher Clemens
Provost and Chief Academic Officer

Amy Johnson
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs