Student Judicial Policies and Procedures

7. Right to an Advisor

A student, party to an action being heard before a judicial entity herein defined, may elect to be accompanied at all formal proceedings of the judicial entity by an advisor of his/her choice. The advisor must be a member of the faculty, staff or student body of the University except that legal counsel may accompany a student, at the student’s discretion, when a criminal charge arising from the matter before the judiciary is pending or is considered likely. Any student who elects to be accompanied by an attorney in cases involving criminal charges or the likelihood of such charges, is required to give advance notice of at least 48 hours to the hearing entity. Absent a pending criminal charge or the bona fide likelihood thereof, the advisor must be drawn from within the University community.

The role of the advisor in all cases, whether the advisor is a member of the University community or legal counsel, is limited to advising the student during the judicial proceeding. The advisor may not speak on behalf of the student, or examine or cross examine witnesses, or address the judicial entity publicly during formal judicial proceedings.

The University is a community that values teaching and learning and promotes the educational value of all of its internal processes, including the judicial process. As the student in the classroom is expected to present his/her own work, free from plagiarism, so the student engaged in a judicial proceeding is expected to carry on his/her own dialogue within a judicial proceeding, presenting his/her ideas and thoughts, and not merely repeating verbatim the advisor’s language.

During a hearing, if it becomes apparent to the judicial entity that a student, in presenting testimony or responding to questions, is merely repeating the thoughts or ideas of the advisor verbatim, the judicial entity will inform the student of its preference that the student present his or her personal thoughts in his or her own words. If the practice continues, the judicial entity shall use its discretion in determining the validity of or the amount of weight to be given to the testimony of the student.

 Last Updated On: 8/19/07