Student Conduct Committee applications now open

Ceylin Arias/Staff Writer

The Student Conduct Committee is currently in need of students who can become part of FIU’s hearing body to “promote integrity, ethics, and be able to make decisions that promote education, accountability, and community well-being,” said Amanda Torres, one of the assistant directors of the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution.

The SCC is a group of students, faculty, and staff who have applied for and have been selected to join the committee as part of the formal student process of the university in charge of hearing and determining final resolution on behavioral misconduct cases.

Any student from any discipline, year, and program may apply to the committee.

“Although we do not hold any firm qualifications besides needing a 2.5 GPA in order to be accepted into the committee, we are looking for individuals that can promote a lot of good qualities such as integrity and open-mindedness,” said Torres. “On campus, it’s important for students to hold each other accountable as it tends to be more powerful when a peer holds a student accountable for a violation than when an administrator does the same thing.”

The code, Torres says, follows students wherever they go and should encourage students to “represent the University in a positive way.”

When a student is charged with a violation of behavioral misconduct, they are given three options: an informal hearing or two formal hearings — with the SCC as one of those formal hearings. In that time, the committee convenes two students and one faculty or staff to hear the student’s case.

“The student will then have the opportunity to give their own side of the story, the committee will ask them questions, they will take into consideration all the witnesses, will review all the evidence and reports that have been submitted and then they’ll make a determination as to rather or not the student is responsible for each of the individual charges,” said Torres.

The SCC reviews include drug use on and off campus, underage drinking, allegations of physical violence, harassment toward other students, staff, or faculty, verbal abuse, threats, sexual misconduct, rape and stalking among other issues.

The deadline to submit applications is Friday, March 24 and interviews will be held a week before finals week, though the exact date has not yet been set.

“We hold interviews so that we can better project to students the importance of the Student Conduct Committee as we deal with a lot of confidential information,” said Torres. “[We look for] a student who is able to have access to all this information and keep them(sic) to themselves and not go around telling highly confidential information. The student must be trustworthy and capable of handling a high level of responsibility.”

Torres adds that students who currently have minimal or no prior involvement within or outside the University can gain to more involvement within the community. On the other hand, extracurricular activities will not hinder students from being accepted into the program.

Prospective students must be enrolled in a minimum of six credit hours for undergraduate students and three credit hours for graduate students. They must also be in good academic and conduct standing with the University, have a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.5, and be available to serve on at least three hearings —three hours each— a month to remain an active member.

Image retrieved from Flickr.