Your education is important to you, so you work hard every day. You get yourself to class, even when you don't feel like listening to a lecture. You study every night, even when someone down the hall is having what sounds like an amazing party. And you don't want to lose your shot at a degree over something silly, so you follow all your school's rules to the letter.
Good for you. Are you just as careful when you're off-campus, though? Or maybe you let your hair down just a little bit? After all, you work hard. Surely, you deserve to cut loose every once in a while when you don't have to worry about faculty and administrators and R.A.s watching your every move.
Here's the thing: what you do off-campus may be subject to the same scrutiny as what you do on campus. Take underage drinking. You avoid it on campus because you know your school could very well dismiss you if you're caught. Off-campus, though—it's just a slap on the wrist if the police catch you, right? Maybe so, but if the police report it to your school, you could still be dismissed.
What do you do to protect yourself? How do you make sure that an off-campus misunderstanding, false allegation, or simple mistake doesn't derail your future?
The same way you protect yourself from on-campus accusations: you contact the Lento Law Firm. The attorneys at the Lento Law Firm are dedicated to the principle that a mistake—or even two or three—shouldn't stand in the way of earning your degree. And a simple misunderstanding certainly shouldn't. And it doesn't matter where trouble happens to find you—on campus or off. They're here to make sure you're treated fairly and that you get the very best possible resolution to your case.
So, the moment you find yourself charged with misconduct, don't wait to see what will happen. You can be sure that your school is already building its case. You should be, too. For more information, call 888-535-3686 or use our automated online form.
Can My College Really Charge Me for Alleged Misconduct that Occurred Off-Campus?
Every school is different, and there are an awful lot of schools in the state of Massachusetts. But broadly speaking, yes, your college does have the power to punish you for off-campus misconduct.
To a certain extent, you can understand why this might be. At a minimum, schools want to be able to dismiss students who have been convicted of serious crimes. It's a bad look, having murderers as undergrads. And it's a real hassle trying to provide people in prison with makeup assignments. Almost every school in Massachusetts then has a rule in its Student Code of Conduct barring students from violating local, state, or federal laws.
What's a little more head-scratching is why schools feel like they should be able to charge you with an offense even if the police haven't. For example, Northeastern's Code of Conduct notes that the university reserves the right to punish student misconduct “occurring off campus that allegedly violates the Code, University policy, local, state, federal, or host country laws.” Note that the wording does not require you to be convicted of such misconduct. The university does have to prove you committed such a policy violation in order to sanction you, but campus judicial procedures don't require you to be found guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Instead, the standard is whether you “more likely than not” committed an offense.
In fact, many Massachusetts schools aren't just interested in whether or not you've broken the law. They have rules that govern your behavior no matter where you happen to be. If you should find yourself in a bar brawl or accused of harassing someone online, you can be charged with being a threat to the community or with harming the university's reputation. And some schools—particularly those with religious affiliations—go further, outlawing certain “immoral” behaviors like drinking or sex outside marriage.
How can schools get away with exerting control over you 24/7? Again, there is some logic in a Code of Conduct. Like any other community, a campus community needs rules in order to operate effectively. For the rest, schools treat your enrollment as a contract. In fact, many actually ask that you sign a contract, affirming that you'll follow school policies. If those school policies unfairly restrict your off-campus behavior? Well, you signed the contract. Between that and knowing that few students will actually go to the trouble of challenging those policies, most schools feel reasonably certain they can punish students as they see fit.
Are they right? The law is fairly gray in this area. Certainly, they will do everything they can to hold you accountable if they can get away with it. That includes charging you, investigating you, holding hearings, and issuing sanctions—often severe sanctions. And if you simply accept those sanctions, then you've sort of proven they are right.
You don't have to accept this situation, though. If you should find yourself charged with an offense as the result of off-campus behavior, you have several options:
- You can protest your innocence.
- You can argue that the proposed sanction is unfair.
- You can argue that your school simply doesn't have jurisdiction over an off-campus incident.
You don't want to try to make any of these arguments alone, though. Colleges and universities are established institutions with the weight of tradition on their side. You need someone on your side: someone who knows the law, someone capable of interpreting subtle distinctions in school policies, someone familiar with university judicial processes. You need someone from the Lento Law Firm.
Criteria Used by Massachusetts Schools to Discipline Off-Campus Behaviors
Let's talk specifics. Just what is it that can get you charged with off-campus misconduct? Again, every school is different. UMass Boston, for example, states that it can discipline misconduct “regardless of where such conduct may occur,” provided that contact has a “direct and distinct adverse impact on the University community, its members, and/or the pursuit of its objectives.” Firm enough, but what does it mean, exactly?
Here's a more concrete explanation of what most Massachusetts schools use to determine jurisdiction in off-campus matters.
Connection to School-Sponsored Activities
School-sponsored activities are generally considered to be under school jurisdiction, no matter where they occur. Your intramural golf team may be playing on a private course, but if you're representing your school, you're subject to your school's rules.
Connection to School-related Activities
Many schools go further than “school-sponsored” to talk about “school-related” activities. That is, your school may not have actually sponsored your study group's get-together at Starbucks, but it may regard studying as a school-related activity and the members of your study group as subject to school policies.
Academic Misconduct Off-Campus
Academic misconduct—behavior like cheating or committing plagiarism—is always subject to disciplinary action. These violations aren't related to where they occur but to the fact that you have turned your work in to the university. By definition, it is within the university's purview.
Violation of State or Federal Laws
Virtually all schools bar students from breaking the law, whether it's federal, state, or local law. They differ, however, in how they define “breaking the law.” Some conduct codes say students must be “convicted” before they face school disciplinary sanctions. Others promise to investigate anyone who is “arrested.” Some simply say that an allegation of law-breaking is enough, whether or not civil authorities are involved at all.
Online Misconduct
In our digital world, online misconduct is usually subject to the same kinds of disciplinary responses as “real-world” misconduct. It can sometimes be complicated to sort out whether your university has jurisdiction over online misconduct, though. Certainly, if your misconduct takes place in a course chatroom or is connected to a school website, you can expect to be charged with an offense, no matter where you're at physically when you post. A social media post to Facebook in which you harass another student could also be treated as a violation of school policy, though.
Sexual Harassment, Assault, or Discrimination
For half a century, schools have dealt with most instances of sexual misconduct through Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sexual discrimination and harassment. Since 2020, however, that law has limited school jurisdiction to on-campus incidents. In response, most schools have developed their own policies to cover off-campus offenses.
Affiliation with University-Recognized Organizations
As with “university-sponsored” events, you can expect your school to assert authority over you if you're involved with a “university-recognized organization.” Whether you are participating on a sports team, attending a conference as a school representative, or attending Greek week activities, your behavior is governed by school policy.
Honor Code/Moral Code Violations
Some schools in the state of Massachusetts have “moral codes” or strict honor codes. These may extend to your personal behavior. Perhaps your school bans homosexual relationships or, any sex outside marriage, or the use of violence. Such attempts to regulate morality almost always apply universally—on campus and off.
Threats to University Reputation
Schools that would never institute something as closed-minded as a morals code often talk about “university reputation.” It amounts to the same thing. That is, should you do anything to bring shame or embarrassment to your school, your school can claim that you've damaged it in some way. The problem lies in defining exactly what qualifies as damage to a school's reputation. This could potentially include almost anything and isn't limited by whether a given act is illegal or even technically against school policy. Show up on a Spring Break video wearing school colors, and that could be enough to get you dismissed.
Threats to Health and Safety
Finally, as you can understand, almost all schools reserve the right to intervene in instances where misconduct threatens the health and safety of the campus community. Some schools (see UMass Boston, above) go further and mention the health and safety of community “members.” And this is yet another policy that can be difficult to define. If you're caught off-campus selling drugs to another student, do you represent a “threat to health and safety”?
Possible Disciplinary Actions for Off-Campus Misconduct in Massachusetts
What happens if you're found “Responsible For” (guilty) of an off-campus misconduct offense? In all likelihood, the same thing would happen to you in the case of an on-campus charge. That is, you would be subject to sanctions from your college or university. These might include
- Verbal or Written Warnings: Your university could decide to simply warn you not to engage in the behavior again.
- Educational Programs: Your university could assign you an educational program to complete—an online tutorial, a weekend seminar, or even an entire semester-long course on the nature of your offense.
- Restitution: Schools have the power to demand restitution if you've damaged school property or harmed an individual. In most cases, you cannot graduate until you have paid this restitution.
- Probation: Probation is like a warning but more serious. It generally comes with the promise of more severe sanctions should you commit an additional offense. Also, probation is often noted in permanent files.
- Loss of Privileges: You could lose privileges as the result of policy violation. You might be barred from using student parking, for example, or from entering the campus fitness center. Schools also sometimes issue no-contact orders or require students to change their schedules to avoid alleged victims.
- Suspension: Suspension means separation from the university for some period of time, typically a semester, though it can be as long as a year or more. During suspension, you cannot take classes, and you may be asked to stay away from campus altogether.
- Expulsion: This means permanent separation from the university or, at a minimum, separation for several years. Expulsion almost always appears on transcripts.
- Withholding of Degree: Your school can withhold your degree until you've undergone an investigation and adjudication and until you've served any assigned sanctions.
- Revocation of Degree: Finally, in the most serious cases, a university can decide to revoke your degree entirely if it should discover you committed an unpunished offense while you were a student. In fact, a minor offense—such as plagiarism—is often viewed far more seriously if it isn't discovered until after the fact.
Ultimately, it really doesn't matter what sanction your school has proposed. Any sanction, even a warning, can have serious consequences if it should show up in your record—official or otherwise. An expulsion, of course, is likely to prevent you from enrolling anywhere else and finishing your degree. Any sanction, though, can interfere with graduate school, internship, license, and job applications.
With so much at stake, you can't afford to represent yourself. You need the best help you can get. The attorneys at the Lento Law Firm know the law. They also know how your school works. Most importantly, they're experienced. They've helped hundreds of students handle all kinds of misconduct charges, and they can help you as well.
The Lento Law Firm: Your Massachusetts Student Defense Team
The Lento Law Firm understands the stakes when it comes to education. Your career prospects, your financial independence, your reputation—all depend on your education. Any time that's threatened, you must act quickly and decisively to protect yourself. The Lento Law Firm can help.
The firm's Student Defense Team knows your rights and what your school is and isn't allowed to expect from you. They also know how your school operates. They're used to working with campus disciplinary committees. They know all the rules and procedures you'll face and how to use them to your best advantage.
If you've found yourself accused of some type of off-campus misconduct, it's in your best interest to find out how the attorneys at the Lento Law Firm can help. Contact the Lento Law Firm today at 888-535-3686 or use the automated online form.
