Informal Hearings

Informal Hearings

Alleged violations of the Bowdoin College Social Code may be addressed through an informal hearing. As defined by the Code of Community Standards, an informal hearing is an informal process that takes place before a Conduct Officer to address a disciplinary matter. A Conduct Officer is a professional staff member from either the Office of the Dean of Students, the Office of Residential Life, and the Office of the Dean for Student Affairs with the authority to address violations of the Code of Community Standards. Unless circumstances require otherwise, the College will conduct all informal hearings in person. When it is not possible for a hearing to take place in person or when circumstances require otherwise, the College will hold a hearing via videoconference.

Informal Hearing Guidelines

For the purposes of assuring fairness and consistency, the College adopts the following protections for students participating in Informal Hearings:

notice of the charges
the opportunity to provide a written and/or oral statement prior to resolution of the matter

The Conduct Officer shall use the decisional standard of “preponderance of evidence” to determine whether a student’s conduct violated College policy.

Process

Below is an overview of what to expect during an informal hearing process.

Notification: This notification is emailed to a student’s Bowdoin email address. This includes a notice of the charges and instructions on how to schedule the informal hearing with the Conduct Officer.
Informal Hearing: This is a meeting between the student and a Conduct Officer. This meeting is a conversation about the incident during which the student is invited to share their perspective.
Outcome Letter: An outcome letter will be emailed to the student’s Bowdoin email address. This will include information about findings and sanctions, if applicable.

Appeals

If the sanctions do not include a change of status, the decision is final and not eligible for an appeal.

If the sanctions include a change of status (for example: disciplinary probation), the student may elect to either pursue the appeal process or request the matter be referred to a Formal Hearing, which will typically take place before the Conduct Review Board.