An allegation of academic misconduct – like plagiarism, forging official school documents, or cheating on a test – is a serious thing to face for college students in Hawaii. Many students rely on their opportunity to show their innocence at the academic misconduct hearing. However, these hearings are not always fair or properly conducted. Even innocent students can be found in violation of their college's code of conduct and facing academic misconduct penalties.
Utilizing your right to appeal is essential. Academic misconduct appeal advisor Joseph D. Lento can help.
Your Ability to Appeal is Critical for Preserving Your Rights
Every college in Hawaii has its own way of hearing and determining cases and allegations of academic violations. Most of them use hearing panels that are comprised of faculty, students, and administrators. While the diverse panel is meant to ensure voices are heard from all different walks of life on campus, the result is a distinct lack of experience in hearing and judging allegations of misconduct. When you have serious repercussions – up to and potentially including expulsion – on the line, that lack of experience is disturbing. Not only are the panel members more likely to be swayed by appeals to their emotions; they are also likely to be prejudicial and have an inkling of your guilt or innocence before hearing any evidence.
Luckily, most schools in Hawaii allow students who have been found in violation of the code of academic integrity to appeal the outcome of their hearing for these very reasons.
An Academic Appeals Advisor Can Help
Utilizing this right to appeal your case is not always easy or straightforward. Many schools in Hawaii have raised procedural hurdles in an attempt to let only the most worthwhile appeals travel through to the next level. The practical repercussion of these hurdles, though, is that most appeals – regardless of their merit – are not made.
An academic misconduct appeal advisor like Joseph D. Lento can help you overcome these hurdles by crafting an appeal that both satisfies the requirements of your particular school and persuades the appellate board that your case is worth a rehearing. In many cases, this means highlighting things that happened during your initial hearing that indicate the process was skewed against you in some way, preventing you from receiving a fair trial.
But achieving another hearing is not the goal of the appeal: Winning at the appellate level is. A poorly phrased appeal document can prevent this from happening by leaving out important facts that could be used to support your case. If not mentioned in the appeal, they are often not allowed to be discussed in the subsequent hearing.
Call Hawaii Academic Appeal Advisor Joseph D. Lento
If you are a college student in Hawaii and have been accused of committing an act of academic misconduct, and your hearing does not go as planned, you need an academic appeal advisor like Joseph D. Lento. A student discipline defense attorney, Joseph D. Lento can help you protect your rights by ensuring your case gets reheard by a fair panel. Contact him online or call him at (888) 535-3686.
- Argosy University Hawaii
- Brigham Young University Hawaii
- Chaminade University of Honolulu
- Hawaii Community College
- Hawaii Pacific University
- Heald College Honolulu
- Honolulu Community College
- Kapiolani Community College
- Kauai Community College
- Leeward Community College
- New Hope Christian College
- Remington College Honolulu Campus
- University of Hawaii at Hilo
- University of Hawaii at Manoa
- University of Hawaii Maui College
- University of Hawaii West Oahu
- University of Phoenix Hawaii Campus
- Windward Community College
Regrettably, an academic misconduct finding of responsibility can derail an accused student's academic and professional goals and some students and parents do not recognize this concern until it may be too late. If a student is found responsible for academic misconduct charges, in addition to the short-term consequences such academic and disciplinary sanctions, there will be long-term consequences. Internships, graduate school opportunities, and employment opportunities can all be adversely impacted by a finding of responsibility.
For these reasons and more, it is critical to properly address such concerns as early as possible in the disciplinary process. There are times, however, that it necessary to appeal an adverse outcome, and Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm have unparalleled experience passionately fighting for the futures of his clients at universities and colleges in Hawaii and throughout the nation. He does not settle for the easiest outcome, and instead prioritizes his clients' needs and well-being. Joseph Lento is a licensed attorney in New Jersey and New York, is admitted as an attorney pro hac vice in state and federal court if needed when representing clients nationwide, and serves as an academic misconduct advisor to students facing disciplinary cases in Hawaii and throughout the nation. Make certain your or your student's interests are protected at all stages of the academic misconduct disciplinary process, including the appeal stage - Contact National Academic Misconduct Advisor Joseph D. Lento today at 888-535-3686.
