About

The Office of Student Conduct receives reports from Campus Public Safety, the Residence Halls, Staff, Faculty, off-campus entities, and more. Once receiving a report, our conduct officers review the information and assign charges to the student who is allegedly in violation of the Code of Student Responsibility or the Guide to Residential Living.

The conduct officer assigned to the case will reach out to the student via their WOU email through a system called Maxient to request that the student comes to talk about the incident during a meeting. At the meeting, the conduct officer wants to get to know more about the student, what they have going on in their life, and what really happened at the incident. After hearing from the student, the conduct officer will make their decision based on the “preponderance of evidence.” This means that the conduct officer will factor in the information from the report(s), the student, and any potential witnesses to determine if there is enough evidence to find the student “responsible” or “not responsible” for the alleged violations.

If the student is found “not repsonsible,” the case is considered closed.

If the student is found “responsible,” the conduct officer will assign sanctions (consequences) for the violations. Our sanctions are largely educational in nature and strive to engage a learning component to hold students accountable for their actions and prevent similar actions in the future. Occasionally, students are assigned punitive sanctions such as probation or suspension as a way to issue a more formal warning that if their behavior doesn’t change, that they may face more severe consequences including expulsion in rare instances.

Once students complete their sanctions, their case is considered closed. If students do not complete their sanctions, a judicial hold is placed on their account, which prevents them from registerring for classes, ordering transcripts, and conducting most forms of business at WOU.