Students living in on-campus residential communities now have a second option to turn to when facing punishment for certain conduct violations.

This past summer, Residential Life created a one-year pilot program for the Student Conduct Board to address level-one infractions in dorms. These include alcohol, drug or room damage violations, which would not result in prohibition, suspension or expulsion from campus.

In the past, students would receive a charge letter when they had been accused of a level-one infraction and would be called to meet with a member of residential staff. After initial inquiry, students would be asked to sign an agreement accepting responsibility for the accusation.

Although most level-one infractions would not come with a punishment and the agreements were confidential, students had the option to appeal their accusation directly to Dean of Students April Thompson. If the student could not prove his or her innocence to Thompson, then the University would still hold the student responsible.

“Students were charged before they ever had the opportunity to talk with somebody,” said Susan Briggs, assistant director of the Student Conduct Board. “That determination was made just on the basis of reading an incident report. Whereas now a student isn’t charged until they’ve had a face-to-face contact with someone.”

Under the new program, students have the option to respond to such reports and go before the Student Conduct Board instead of signing the agreement.

“There is a lot of choice involved for a student,” said Amy Pollock Drake, the assistant director of housing. “It is something that we think is an empowering piece for the students that they get to have another option.”

To form the Student Conduct Board, returning students living on campus for the fall semester were invited to apply, with 20 being selected. Training sessions were held over the summer, where they reviewed student conduct policy, examined case studies, confidentiality rules and reviewed past incident reports.

According to Siaki Tetteh-Nartey, a student on the Conduct Board and a sophomore majoring in computer engineering, members worked hard in order to improve the hearings and to make students feel as comfortable as possible.

“It’s a learning process,” she explained. “It’s not just finding out what happened but also helping the students themselves learn from the experience.”

Pollock Drake primarily directs the program, but graduate students Matthew Walsh and Rashad Williams chair the hearings. The student board members vote and impose sanctions against students or refer them to educational sessions that aim to prevent students from becoming repeat offenders.

Students can still appeal the decisions made by the Student Conduct Board to Thompson, although she has not received any as of yet.

At the end of the semester, the Office of Student Conduct and Residential Life will assess the success of the pilot program based on speed of the process, repeat offenses and student response. If the feedback is favorable, the board will expand to address to all level-one cases at the University, even those outside residential areas.

“Any time we can get students more engaged in their communities, our communities are better for it,” Thompson said.

According to Thompson, this program is unique to BU.

“You’re not going to see a whole lot of schools putting this kind of real trust in the maturity of students,” Thompson said. “But Binghamton students can handle it. They do hold each other to a pretty high standard.”