» Student FAQs

Resident Advisors document incidents and complete an incident report on Chapman’s student conduct database, which then notifies the appropriate staff members(s) of the report. If you live in the residence halls, your Resident Director (RD) will receive a copy of the incident report to review. This professional staff member will then send you an email to your Chapman email account within a week to schedule a Community Conversation. If you do not live in the residence halls, the Director of Student Conduct will receive the report, review it, and assign a staff member to reach out to you for a Community Conversation or formal hearing.

A Community Conversation is a meeting with your Resident Director to discuss your experience with an incident, any possible violations of the Student Conduct Code, and the impact the incident had on the community. Your Resident Director (RD) has reached out to you to schedule this meeting with you because he or she is concerned about you, your decision-making, and/or your wellbeing. You should respond right away to schedule the Community Conversation with your RD as soon as possible. Meetings usually take place in the RD office and take about 30 minutes. At that meeting, you two will discuss your level of responsibility and what next steps may be appropriate.

This letter means that it is alleged that you have violated the Student Conduct Code, and you are required to attend a formal conduct hearing. It is important that you follow the directions in the email as soon as possible to schedule the hearing. Call or email the person who sent you the letter and schedule an appointment. At this point, no decisions regarding responsibility have been made regarding the alleged violation, but you must be present at the hearing to discuss your perspective and either accept or refute the alleged charges. If you choose not to attend a hearing, a decision will be made with the information on file without your participation.

Chapman University prides itself in its individualized education, and that goes for learning outside the classroom as well. Since our process is educational rather than punitive, we do not have a standard response for any given incident or violation. Instead, we get to know you through the Student Conduct Process and any assigned educational or status sanctions will be appropriate for the violation as well as your experience. Our intent in sanctioning is allow you to reflect on the policies and your own decision-making. Sanctions are determined based on the severity of the violation(s), your cumulative conduct history, your individual experiences and needs, and the Student Conduct Code. Therefore, we do not predict the outcome of an incident or hearing will be before all of the information has been considered.

You would have received a Hearing Outcome Letter to your Chapman email account notifying you of the determination of responsibility as well as any assigned sanctions. If you have lost your outcome letter email, please contact your Hearing Officer for the case or email conduct@chapman.edu.

Failure to complete sanctions, provisions, or community agreements by their due dates will result in the placement of a Dean’s Hold on your account. If a Dean’s Hold is placed on your account, you will not be able to conduct any official university business, such as registering, adding or dropping classes, or requesting transcripts. If you have a Dean’s Hold on your account, it is imperative that you complete any assigned sanctions as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please contact the Dean of Student’s Office.

If you have sanctions or hearings that are past due, the Dean of Students Office may place a Dean’s Hold on your account. If you have a Dean’s Hold, it may mean that you have been charged with an alleged violation of the Student Conduct Code but have not responded to the notices from your hearing officer or board to initiate the process. Alternatively, it may mean that you have not satisfactorily completed your assigned sanctions by their due dates. While these are the most common reasons for Dean’s Holds on student accounts, there are various other reasons a hold can be placed on a student’s account. Please contact the Dean of Students Office in AF 101, at (714) 977-6721 or at conduct@chapman.edu to learn more. Your hold will not be lifted until you resolve the situation.

No, Chapman will not withdraw you from classes due interim disciplinary action. It is up to the student to decide whether or not to withdraw from classes. It is up to you whether or not you would like to withdraw from the classes you are enrolled in currently. Please note that you are not permitted to withdraw from a course after engaging in an Academic Integrity Policy violation in that course.

You will need to consider whether or not you are eligible for appeal. You may request one appeal for any and all sanctions imposed, and appeals are not granted automatically. If you did not show up to your hearing, you are not eligible to submit an appeal. If you wish to submit an appeal, please note that it must be written thoughtfully with substantive information demonstrative of at least one of the following criteria:

• That there was a substantive procedural error that may have prohibited the hearing from being conducted fairly in light of the charges;
• The facts in the case were insufficient to establish that a violation of the Code occurred;
• The sanction(s) imposed was not appropriate for the violation of the Code for which you were found to be responsible; and/or
• New evidence that was not available at the time of the hearing has become available, and is potentially sufficient to alter a decision.

After determining that you are eligible for an appeal and you have met one or more of these criteria, you will need to prepare a written appeal within 5 business days of your Hearing Outcome letter. You also will need to make an appointment with the Director of Student Conduct to review your appeal intentions and your written appeal. Your written appeal must clearly demonstrate the grounds for appeal in a thoughtfully written, 5-page, double-spaced letter in 12-pt font. All appeals requests, regardless of the hearing body, should be submitted to the Director of Student Conduct via email or the web link provided in your Hearing Outcome letter. If your appeal is found to have merit, the appeals body will consider your request and may require another hearing to determine whether or not to adjust the decision of responsibility or sanctions imposed.

If this is an emergency and there is a threat or harm to you or to others, call 911 or Public Safety at 714-997-6763.

If this is not an emergency but you feel a violation of the Student Conduct Code has occurred against you or you have witnessed an incident, you may contact the Dean of Students Office, Public Safety, your Resident Director, or the Director of Student Conduct to file a report. The Dean of Students Office and/or the Director of Student Conduct will then determine if the information you shared warrants the initiation of the Student Conduct Process. You may contact the Dean of Students Office to learn more about the process and your rights as a complainant. You are also encouraged to file a report with Public Safety and/or OPD to determine if what has occurred is a violation of any laws and to allow police to investigate the incident.

If you feel you have been the target of possible bias or discrimination but do not know who the responsible party is, you may be able to also learn more about campus resources by contacting the CCI Education & Resource Team.

In accordance with federal law, parents and guardians may be notified when students who are under the age of 21 are found responsible for any drug and/or alcohol related violations. In addition, Chapman may notify parents if there is cause for concern about a students’ health or safety.

It is best that you share this information directly with your parents, as you are the steward of your own Student Conduct Record and other educational records. Chapman policy, in accordance with federal law, is to refrain from sharing your record with your parents unless you provide the University with clear written permission. Records and files created during the Student Conduct Process are “Educational Records” that are covered under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which means they are generally protected from being released to third parties without direct written consent from the student.

If it is deemed appropriate to share information about your Student Conduct Record with another University officials in order to help you prevent further violations or to be more successful here at Chapman, those officials may be consulted about your record. This information will only be shared if the information is pertinent to the staff member in doing his or her job in supporting you as a student.

The following is a brief overview of your student rights in the Student Conduct Process. Please see the full Student Conduct Code for more information.

• You have the right to have prior knowledge of the alleged charges, including a clear definition and explanation of each. If you need assistance with general questions, please contact the Director of Student Conduct.
• You have the right to hear testimony and/or see all written statements concerning the alleged charges.
• You have the right to be present throughout the hearing but not during the witness statement(s), complainant’s testimony, or deliberation process.
• You have the right to refute oral and/or written statements in a hearing.
• You have the right to provide material witnesses and/or statements from witnesses in a hearing.
• You have the right be advised of the appropriate appeal process.
• You have the right to be accompanied by a Support Person if you so choose, but this person may not speak on your behalf.
• You have the right to submit a written statement outlining your perspective on the incident.

Most student conduct violations will not affect scholarships, but a student should read the individual conditions of the scholarship. As required by federal law, drug violations may be reported to the Financial Aid Office, which may have repercussions on future federal aid eligibility. Instances of misappropriating your financial aid or drug violations may affect your eligibility for federal student loans. Please contact the Financial Aid Office for more information.

Your student conduct record contains all the information about any instance of an alleged Student Conduct Code violation or a violation of any other University policy, rule, or regulation. Your conduct record includes the date, time, location, and details of any incident you have been involved in as well as the outcome from any Community Conversations or formal hearings you participated in as a result. If a case you are involved in is deferred, it will not appear in your student conduct record as long as you do not violate the Code at any time after that deferral. Your Student Conduct Record cannot be erased, and incidents on your record are not equivalent to “points” on a driver’s license.

In general, student conduct records are maintained by the Dean of Students Office for seven (7) years from the date of graduation to ensure compliance with federal laws and regulations. Records of suspensions, expulsions, and Academic Integrity Policy violations are permanently maintained by the Dean of Students Office. Information from these records will be shared upon request with others who have a need to know, in a manner consistent with federal law (FERPA). Beyond one year after you graduate from Chapman, information from your student conduct record will only be released when required by a lawful judicial order or a subpoena from the courts.

If you are found responsible for a violation of the Student Conduct Code, the University will maintain a record of the violation in your student conduct record. If you receive a deferral, the violation will not appear in your student conduct record as long as you do not violate the Code at any time after that deferral. Any future misconduct following a deferral will be cause for the deferred incident report to be reopened.

Your student conduct record does not appear on your official transcript, but expulsions are included.

You can always obtain a copy of your student conduct record by contacting the Dean of Students Office or Director of Student Conduct. However, under federal law (FERPA), the University not allowed to disclose your Student Conduct Record to anyone but you without your permission. Typically, in order to disclose your disciplinary history to anyone (including parents), we must have a signed waiver from you. However, some exceptions to disclosure do apply. Two of the most common reasons for Chapman to disclose information from your student conduct record to someone without your prior consent is in the case of an emergency or in the case of sharing information with a University official who needs the information to fulfill his or her role. In times of a health or safety emergency, the University may disclose information from your student conduct record to appropriate parties, including your parents, in order to resolve the issue. In terms of disclosure to University officials, including professors, the University would only share information about your record to those officials who have a legitimate educational interest in the information and need it to do their jobs at Chapman.

Each application is different, so it is up to you to know what the institution is asking for and answer truthfully regarding your Student Conduct Record. If you apply to another school and it asks Chapman about your Student Conduct Record, the Dean of Students Office will provide general information concerning your record. Many students who have been found responsible for violations do move on to graduate or professional school, and the Dean of Students Office is happy to share your record with you so that you can preview what another institution may see after requesting information from Chapman.

This is a common occurrence, and the Dean of Students Office will be able to help you complete the form. You can bring the form to the Dean of Students Office AF 101, or fax to (714) 532-6009 or email it to conduct@chapman.edu. If the school receiving the form requires that it be physically mailed back, please provide us with a stamped envelope and the correct address. If the form can be faxed back to the institution, please provide the correct fax number with your form request.

You may choose to be accompanied by a Support Person of your choice, but it is important not to select a Support Person who will try to participate on your behalf in the hearing. Chapman’s Student Conduct Process is an educational process concerned with your personal and professional development, and thus the conduct body must be able to speak and work directly with you rather than anyone else. Support Persons are not permitted to speak to the members of the conduct body or participate directly in the hearing unless directly questioned by the conduct body. However, Support Persons can quietly communicate to you if they are there to support you, as long as that communication does not interfere with the conduct process. To learn more about Support Persons, please read the Student Conduct Code.

Where an attorney is permitted, the attorney must conform to the same requirements as applied to a Support Person. The respondents and complainants must identify their respective Support Persons and if the individual(s) are attorneys through written notification to the conduct body 2 business days prior to the hearing. Support Persons may not participate directly in the hearing other than quiet communication with the student they are accompanying. This communication must not interfere with the conduct process. To learn more about Support Persons, please read the Student Conduct Code.

Upon applying and joining the Chapman University community, you signed an agreement stating that you would abide by Chapman’s Student Conduct Code. If the Dean of Students Office has received an incident report alleging that you violated the Student Conduct Code, it is crucial to address the issue in a timely manner. This does not mean that you are assumed to be responsible. Instead, the Student Conduct Process allows you and a University official or board to meet for a Community Conversation or hearing to discuss the incident. That meeting provides you with an opportunity to present your side of the story and respond to the alleged charges. Then, the hearing officer or board will determine the facts of the case and decide whether or not you are being held responsible for the alleged violation(s). 

This means you are being asked to attend a hearing to provide first-hand testimony of an incident you may have seen or otherwise witnessed take place. You will be asked to give a brief statement and answer questions regarding your involvement in the situation. If you feel uncomfortable being physically present at the hearing, accommodations may be made by the Director of Student Conduct.

Chapman University strongly believes that the Chapman community extends beyond the campus itself. The standards of behavior set forth by in the Student Conduct Code apply to everyone associated with the University both on and off campus because any violation of the Student Conduct Code can have an impact on the University community and the University mission regardless of location. The University works to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for the entire Chapman community, wherever community members may be.

The criminal system and Chapman University are separate entities. The Student Conduct Process may be necessary to resolve a situation in which you have been alleged to violate the Student Conduct Code, even if you have also been charged with a violation of a law in connection as a result from the same factual situation. The Student Conduct Process will take place without regard to the pending status of civil litigation in court or criminal arrest and prosecution. In working with you, your hearing officer or board may determine to complete the Student Conduct Process prior to, simultaneously with, or following civil or criminal proceedings off-campus. Please note that determinations of responsibility are not subject to change due to any dismissed, reduced, or resolved criminal charges in favor or against you.

At the discretion of the Dean of Students Office, the Student Conduct Process may be delayed. However, please note that not all requests to do so will be approved. Some instances will require Chapman to continue to move forward prior to or simultaneously with civil or criminal proceedings.

No. The University’s interest in the matter is in regards to potential violations of the Student Conduct Code rather than the law, which means the Student Conduct Process is separate from city, state, federal, or other agency processes. Your incident report will remain open and your conduct process at Chapman will proceed regardless of what happens outside of the University.

Educational sanctions do not impact your visa status, but status sanctions such as a suspension or expulsion can. The type of visa you have determines whether or not Chapman must notify the United States government if you have been out of school for a specified number of days. If this is happens, you may face penalties such as deportation, not being permitted to immediately return in the United States, or not being permitted back to the country. These penalties will halt or seriously delay your studies. Please contact the International Student and Scholar Services for more information.