An article in the Daily Princetonian boasts that Princeton University has formalized the role of students to act as advocates for their peers charged with honor code and code of conduct violations. Formerly, students could advocate for their charged peers only before the university's Honor Committee handling academic misconduct like plagiarism and exam cheating. The Daily Princetonian reports that students can now also defend other students in Committee on Discipline cases charging behavioral misconduct like alcohol, drug, and weapons violations. According to the report, Princeton even gives those student advocates a nice new title of Princeton Peer Representatives. These moves are indeed likely good for the university but surely not good for the student whom Princeton charges in disciplinary proceedings.

The Peril to Charged Students of Peer Advocates

Of course, Princeton would want charged students to only have another unskilled, inexperienced, and busy fellow student to defend the charges. Princeton and other colleges and universities already have a major upper hand over students charged with disciplinary violations. The charged students are generally young, scared about the high stakes they face in potential dismissal, and unskilled in administrative procedures. The school's disciplinary officials are, by contrast, generally much older, not in the least intimidated or at risk, and highly skilled and experienced in academic and administrative matters. Student peers also can have very sharp conflicts of interest when defending a charged student. Those peers may want to play to their instructors and administrators who, after all, control grades, honors, and other privileges. Having another young and unskilled student “defend” the charged student just keeps the playing field tipped about as sharply as ever against the charged student. Indeed, the charged student's impression that the student has qualified help, when instead the student has only a peer's help, further disables the charged student. Princeton has everything to gain and nothing to lose by encouraging peers rather than outside representation.

The Right Move to Retain Qualified Representation

So, the very wrong move when facing school disciplinary charges is to accept the school's offer of unqualified peer representation. Yes, Princeton and other schools claim to train those peer advocates. But peer training may be very little, nothing more than a booklet or a couple of hours of watching a video. Peer training certainly can't replace the years of education and many more years of substantial experience that a qualified attorney advisor would bring to the representation. The right move is instead to retain skilled and experienced attorney advisor representation. Premier national education attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento has successfully represented hundreds of students nationwide on all kinds of disciplinary charges. Attorney advisor Lento and the Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team can do research, drafting, communication, negotiation, hearings including cross-examination, and appeals that no student peer could imagine accomplishing for you. Attorney Lento also has a national reputation and network of contacts with general counsel offices through which to pursue alternative special relief. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now to retain the qualified attorney advisor you need for your best outcome.