Hawaii is a frankly spectacular place to attend a college or university. The state's gorgeous natural terrain is home to sixteen public, private, and community college campuses. Students attend Hawaii college and university programs of many types and at several levels, from two-year and four-year degrees up to graduate degrees. Hawaii even offers professional degrees in fields such as medicine, law, and engineering. As idyllic as Hawaii can be, though, Hawaii colleges and universities impose the same high standards for student conduct as mainland colleges and universities. Students at Hawaii colleges and universities can face student code of conduct charges just like students at mainland schools. And Hawaii college code of conduct charges can carry the same serious sanctions up to suspension and dismissal as charges at mainland schools. If you face code of conduct charges at your Hawaii college or university, you need the skilled and experienced representation of national college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento of the Lento Law Firm. Attorney Lento has helped hundreds of students nationwide successfully defend and defeat college and university code of conduct charges.
The Value of a Hawaii College or University Degree
When you chose to pursue a degree from a Hawaii college or university, you very likely made a wise choice. You likely have ambitions not only of earning your degree but of gaining a job and career that depends on your college or university education. College or university education is not only a great way to open doors to jobs and careers, substantially increasing your lifetime earnings. A college or university education can have even greater value in personal, intellectual, and social development. The peer and professor networks that college and university students form can serve them well for a lifetime. The maturation that higher education promotes can lead to lifelong flourishing in many roles and relationships, not just employment. If you face code of conduct charges at your Hawaii college or university, recognize how much you have invested and have at stake in your higher education. Don't give up on your investment and ambition.
The Risk of Hawaii College Code of Conduct Charges
Code of conduct charges create substantial risks for Hawaii college or university students. For many discipline administrators, suspension is the default sanction to which the administrator turns unless the student aggressively and effectively rebuts the charges. If you take code of conduct charges too lightly, failing to retain a skilled, experienced, and qualified college conduct defense attorney-advisor, you could suffer not only suspension but even expulsion. Suspension or expulsion leaves a permanent mark on your academic record. They also delay or derail graduation. Once you are no longer in good standing at your Hawaii college or university, you may be unable to transfer to another college or university or gain admission to another school. You could thus lose your opportunity for a job and career that you intended to pursue. Dismissal can also accelerate school loans and cause you to lose access to school medical care, housing, transportation, and other services, facilities, and accommodations. In short, code of conduct charges can place at risk everything that you ventured at your college or university and hoped to gain from it in the future. Get the help you need to defend and defeat Hawaii college or university code of conduct charges. Retain national college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the student conduct defense team at the Lento Law Firm.
Hawaii College Codes of Conduct
Hawaii colleges and universities maintain student codes of conduct to regulate student behavior. When a student faces misconduct charges at a Hawaii college or university, the outcome of those charges may well depend on the terms, definitions, and procedures in the school's student code of conduct. Or, to put the same point more accurately, the outcome may depend on how your retained college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento puts those conduct codes to strategic use in your defense. The codes of conduct mean little or nothing unless your attorney-advisor knows how to strategically deploy them to achieve for you the best outcome possible. Consider these examples of Hawaii college and university student conduct codes:
- The University of Hawaii maintains a system-wide Student Code of Conduct addressing academic and behavioral misconduct, plus a separate Interim Policy on Title IX Sexual Harassment addressing sexual misconduct
- Hawaii Community College's Student Conduct Code adopts the University of Hawaii's system-wide Student Code of Conduct
- Honolulu Community College similarly adopts the University of Hawaii's system-wide Interim Policy on Title IX Sexual Harassment
- Chaminade University of Honolulu maintains a comprehensive Student Handbook that includes the school's Student Code of Conduct
- Pacific Rim Christian University likewise maintains a comprehensive Student Handbook, including the school's Standards of Conduct and Social Standards
Hawaii Governing Higher Education Bodies
The Hawaii legislature decades ago established the State Post-Secondary Education Commission to coordinate Hawaii college and university compliance with federal funding mandates. Hawaii's State Post-Secondary Education Commission has members representing most of Hawaii's colleges and universities, particularly the dominant University of Hawaii system. While the State Post-Secondary Education Commission influences Hawaii colleges and universities on federal funding compliance issues, the Commission does not promulgate a uniform student code of conduct. Instead, each Hawaii university system, college, or university enacts its own student policies. The exception involves Title IX misconduct charges. Hawaii colleges and universities must comply with federal Title IX mandates to receive federal funding, including federal student loan proceeds. Hawaii colleges and universities thus adopt very similar Title IX policies, all prohibiting the sexual misconduct that Title IX requires schools to prohibit.
Hawaii College Code of Conduct Sanctions
Hawaii colleges and universities grant themselves broad authority to impose sanctions under their student codes of conduct. Colleges and universities across the country typically authorize graduated sanctions from small penalties to large penalties. Hawaii colleges and universities are no different in that respect. For example, Chaminade University of Honolulu's Student Handbook authorizes the university to impose everything from a written warning to restitution for property damage, school service work, fines, required education or training, probation, and loss of privileges, up to and including suspension and dismissal. The University of Hawaii system's Student Code of Conduct simply authorizes any reasonable sanction up to expulsion. The University of Hawaii's Student Code of Conduct also authorizes the student conduct administrator who imposes the sanction to consider all relevant evidence, including the accused student's prior code violations, community involvement, employment, disregard for the student's own health and safety, and disregard for the health and safety of others. If you face Hawaii code of conduct sanctions, retain national college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento to ensure that your school considers all exonerating and mitigating evidence. Attorney Lento knows how to show the school that no sanction or sanctions short of suspension or dismissal can better serve the school's educational mission.
Hawaii College Code of Conduct Procedures
In their student codes of conduct, Hawaii colleges and universities include procedures to issue misconduct charges, determine the truth of those charges, and in appropriate cases, impose sanctions up to suspension and dismissal from the school. Published procedures ensure that the accused student has a fair chance to respond to charges, proving them exaggerated or untrue, or to introduce evidence that should mitigate and perhaps eliminate any penalty. But procedures alone do not guarantee a fair proceeding. College and university disciplinary officials generally have broad latitude to accept allegations and impose sanctions following only cursory procedures if the accused student does not respond effectively. An effective response to misconduct charges typically requires the aggressive and skilled representation of an experienced college conduct defense attorney-advisor. National college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento has helped hundreds of students nationwide put school procedures to the best effect, avoiding disabling sanctions.
Informal Hawaii College Code of Conduct Procedures
Informal resolution procedures typically involve a complaint directed to the primary school disciplinary official, often a dean of students, vice president, or director for student affairs. Disciplinary procedures at Chaminade University of Honolulu follow this procedure in the Student Handbook, as do the system-wide Student Conduct Code Procedures at the University of Hawaii. Title IX complaints of sexual misconduct more often go to a Title IX coordinator who has the special training and sensitivity to ensure that procedures comply with federal regulations. In non-Title IX cases, the disciplinary official typically evaluates the complaint for factual merit before notifying the accused student of the complaint. The official or an appointed investigator then typically arranges for a meeting with the accused student to address the complaint's allegations. The student should be prepared to present exonerating evidence and name exonerating witnesses at the meeting because the meeting may be the only opportunity for the student to respond before the school imposes sanctions. The disciplinary official often attempts to get the student to admit to the allegations so that the matter may conclude with the official's sanctions. If you face a misconduct complaint at your Hawaii college or university, do not admit to allegations that are untrue, and do not accept any sanction that will appear on your school record without first consulting a skilled and experienced college conduct defense attorney. If your school permits you to bring your retained attorney-advisor to the conduct meeting, as is the case in the University of Hawaii system, then do so.
Formal Hawaii College Code of Conduct Procedures
Hawaii colleges and universities offer more formal procedures for Title IX cases, as federal Title IX regulations require. All Hawaii colleges and universities receiving federal funding offer a hearing before a hearing official or hearing panel to resolve disputed Title IX charges. The system-wide Interim Policy on Title IX Sexual Harassment at the University of Hawaii is a good example. The hearing official or panel may only consider evidence presented at the hearing through witnesses testifying subject to cross-examination. Your Hawaii college or university must permit you to retain an attorney-advisor to accompany you to the hearing and assist you, including cross-examining adverse witnesses. The hearing official or panel must write a decision justifying any sanction imposed. Hawaii colleges and universities typically offer an appeal from an adverse decision to an appeal official or panel. Hearings and appeals are complex technical proceedings. For their best effect, the accused student must retain a skilled, experienced, and qualified attorney-advisor. National college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento is available at your Hawaii college or university to aggressively represent you using all available procedures.
Alternative Available Relief from Hawaii College Misconduct Charges
Even if you have exhausted all hearings and appeals at your Hawaii college or university, you may have alternative relief available to you. National college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento has helped students nationwide gain alternative relief through school general counsel offices, ombuds offices, and outside counsel. Attorney Lento has the national network and reputation to help you navigate those informal channels for oversight relief.
Hawaii College Code of Conduct Prohibitions
Hawaii colleges and universities prohibit a wide range of student conduct, indeed such a wide range as to create significant risks of running afoul of the code of conduct with behavior that some students might regard as innocent or beyond the school's reach. Prohibited student conduct falls into three categories: (1) Title IX and non-Title IX sexual misconduct; (2) academic misconduct; and (3) behavioral misconduct not directly involving sex or academics.
Hawaii College Code of Conduct Behavioral Misconduct Charges
Behavioral misconduct prohibitions at Hawaii colleges and universities address both common misbehaviors of which students are generally aware and behaviors peculiar to school campuses. The University of Hawaii's system-wide Student Code of Conduct, for example, prohibits disrupting teaching or school administration, behaviors that endanger students like bullying, cyberbullying, hazing, threats, physical violence, and coercion, property damage or destruction, illegal use or possession of controlled substances, alcohol, weapons, and explosives, disorderly conduct, theft, computer misuse, and trespass or other unauthorized use of school property. Chaminade University of Honolulu's Student Handbook and Pacific Rim Christian University's Student Handbook proscribe similar behavioral misconduct. If you face behavioral misconduct charges at your Hawaii college or university campus, take those charges seriously to avoid automatic suspension or even dismissal. Retain national college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento for your best possible outcome.
Hawaii College Code of Conduct Academic Misconduct Charges
Hawaii's colleges and universities protect the academic integrity of their educational programs by prohibiting traditional forms of academic dishonesty. Pacific Rim Christian University's Student Handbook, for example, prohibits providing false information, altering or misusing school documents, plagiarism, and other academic cheating, including impersonation of another student, misrepresentation of work or identification, and research or other academic fraud. The University of Hawaii's system-wide Student Code of Conduct, for another example, prohibits cheating, including using unauthorized materials for exams, using another's work without permission, acquiring test information without permission, and anything the professor's syllabus prohibits, plus providing false information to university officials or forging or altering a university document. If you face academic misconduct charges at your Hawaii college or university, retain national college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you defend and defeat those charges.
Hawaii College Code of Conduct Sexual Misconduct Charges
Hawaii's colleges and universities also meet federal Title IX regulations against sex discrimination by prohibiting rape and other sexual assault and violence, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual harassment in both its quid pro quo and hostile environment forms. The University of Hawaii's system-wide Interim Policy on Title IX Sexual Harassment, Hawaii Community College's Student Conduct Code, Honolulu Community College, Chaminade University of Honolulu's Student Handbook, and Pacific Rim Christian University's Student Handbook all prohibit Title IX sexual misconduct, in some cases extending those prohibitions into other forms of sexual exploitation. Sexual misconduct charges are always serious matters because of their safety, security, and reputational implications. Treat sexual misconduct charges seriously. Retain national college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you defend and defeat Title IX and other sexual misconduct charges.
Hawaii College Conduct Defense Attorney-Advisor Available
National college conduct defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento of the Lento Law Firm is available to help defend and defeat college or university misconduct charges in Hawaii. Attorney Lento has helped hundreds of students nationwide defend and defeat college and university misconduct charges of all kinds. Attorney Lento has the substantial skills and experience, and national reputation and network, you need for the best possible outcome of your charges. And the Lento Law Firm's student defense team has the forensic skills and consulting experts to augment your defense. Even if you have already suffered dismissal and lost all appeals, retain attorney Lento to help you pursue alternative available relief through your school's general counsel office, ombuds office, outside retained counsel, or other oversight channels. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now.
