Southeast office of student conduct handles hazing case

Members of the Southeast Missouri State University football team were involved in an alleged hazing incident on April 13. The Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney's office has declined to press charges on the students, but the incident was referred to Southeast's Office of Student Conduct for review, according to a release by assistant to the president Diane Sides.

The office's main goal is to uphold the Code of Student Conduct at Southeast. If the office suspects that a student has violated Southeast's Code of Student Conduct, the student will be issued a notice to appear, usually by either the Department of Public Safety or the Office of Residence Life. The student then must meet with either assistant dean of students Dr. Randy Carter or one of his assistants.

"At that point their rights are explained to them and there's a preliminary investigation to determine if there is any reason to go forward," dean of students Dr. Dennis Holt said.

If the decision is made to proceed, students have the option to have an administrative hearing or go before the student-run All University Judicial Board. If they choose an administrative hearing they will have a one-on-one discussion with Carter or his graduate assistant Danielle Pettigrew.

If the student chooses to go in front of the board, he or she will present their case to a minimum of three AUJB members. Carter presents the claims and evidence against the student during both types of hearings. However, in an AUJB case the board will make the final decision, not Carter.

In either style of hearing the student can have witnesses, legal attorneys and advisers from the university present. Attorneys and advisers are allowed to sit in, take notes and advise the student outside of the hearing but cannot speak for the student while the proceedings take place. If a student wants moral support from friends and family members, the student can ask that the hearing be open to them, according to Carter.

The office handles offenses from cheating in the classroom to sexual assaults. It is possible for the office to hold its hearings and discipline a student even while that student is under a criminal investigation by the Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney's Office, according to Carter.

"It's happened," Carter said. "Unless we're asked specifically not to."

Carter said that sometimes the office will wait to investigate in order to avoid getting in the way of a criminal investigation.

The office primarily works with DPS, relying on them for reports and details of its investigations. Sometimes an officer is asked to be present at a hearing, either as a witness or if the office feels there is a security reason to have them in the building.

The burden of proof used for an Office of Student Conduct hearing is the preponderance of evidence. That is the standard used in United States civil courts and is defined by the Missouri government website as "that degree of evidence that is of greater weight or more convincing than the evidence which is offered in opposition to it or evidence which as a whole shows the fact to be proved to be more probable than not."

"What that means is reasonable judgment," Holt said.

The office handles 275-300 cases per year, according to Carter, and most of those are handled through an administrative hearing. There are no records available to the public documenting every case, however all criminal offenses are posted on the DPS website in their annual statistics. Carter said that in a matter of public safety, DPS would decide whether or not to release information related to a case.