Community Standards System Overview

The Community Standards process is based on the assumption that individual and group responsibility is a part of the educational process at DePauw. Community Standards action can be helpful to students in encouraging individual responsibility and self-discipline, protecting the rights, freedoms and safety of members of the college community and promoting respect for the rights of others. Neither complainants nor respondents are entitled to be represented by counsel at any stage of the investigation or hearing process.The purposes of the Community Standards process are:

    1. to provide a fair, educationally valid process resulting in fair decisions that hold students accountable for their actions;
    2. to establish basic procedural rights of the accused student;
    3. to protect the rights of members of the college community;
    4. to promote the development of individual and group integrity;
    5. and to uphold the non-academic rules and regulations of the University.

Community Standards System Flowchart:

To better understand the Community Standards process, click here to view a visual description.