Article VII Section 1. Types of Trials

The following is the text concerning different types of trials from the Constitution of the Students’ Association. This text on this page was last modified following Spring Plenary 2011.

(a) Academic Trial

Honor Council will decide an academic situation needs to be resolved in a trial. A trial is necessary if a student is suspected of having violated our community academic standards and must, therefore, answer to the community for his/her actions. Almost all cases of suspected academic dishonesty are resolved in a trial. The Honor Council will designate a Council member to explain to the confronted individual the alleged charges, to explicitly inform the person of his or her rights, to familiarize the individual with the trial procedure, and to describe the implications and purpose of each step of the trial process. If Honor Council decides that a trial must be held to resolve a problem, 5 of its 16 members, along with 5 randomly chosen members of the community, will be the jury. The random jurors will be chosen from a random jury list maintained by the Honor Council (Co-)Secretary(ies). The Honor Council will pursue the goal of achieving a more diverse jury by ensuring that at least three members of the 10 members of the jury will be representative of Haverford’s multicultural population. When Honor Council emails potential jurors, randomly selected from the Haverford student population, they will ask students to fill out a self-identification portion. It will ask whether or not the student in question “identifies as a student of color” and “identifies as a given gender”. This information will never leave the email and will not be used again in any form by Honor Council or anyone else. There will be no list.

When selecting a jury, Honor Council will make sure that there are at least 3 self-identified students of color on a jury and at least 3 students who do not identify as a student of color. In addition, there will be no fewer than four students who identify as male and no fewer than four who identify as female.

(b) Social Trial

If a resolution cannot be reached through confrontation, Honor Council will decide if the social situation needs to be resolved in a trial. A trial is necessary if a student is suspected of having violated our community social standards and must, therefore, answer to the community for his/her actions. The Honor Council will designate a Council member to explain to the confronted individual the alleged charges, to explicitly inform the person of his or her rights, to familiarize the individual with the trial procedure, and to describe the implications and purpose of each step of the trial process. If Honor Council decides that a trial must be held to resolve a problem, 5 of its 16 members, along with 5 randomly chosen members of the community, will serve as the jury. The random jurors will be chosen from a random jury list maintained by the Honor Council (Co-)Secretary(ies). The Honor Council will pursue the goal of achieving a more diverse jury by ensuring that at least three members of the 10 members of the jury will be representative of Haverford’s multicultural population. When Honor Council emails potential jurors, randomly selected from the Haverford student population, they will ask students to fill out a self-identification portion. It will ask whether or not the student in question “identifies as a student of color” and “identifies as a given gender”. This information will never leave the email and will not be used again in any form by Honor Council or anyone else. There will be no list.

(c) Student Facilitation Panel

Often the initial discussion during a confrontation or a mediation is sufficient to resolve a problem between students. In cases when it is not, or in cases when this dialogue is not possible, Honor Council may call a Student Facilitation Panel. The Panel’s primary goals are facilitating respectful communication with the intent of reaching some common understanding, and encouraging individuals to take responsibility and accountability for past actions.

This Panel will consist of six members of the Students’ Association, three of whom will be Honor Council members, including the (Co-)Chair, and three will be randomly selected community members. Two of the Panel members will be chosen in a manner consistent with the goal of achieving a more diverse panel by ensuring that at least two members of the six members of the jury will be representative of Haverford’s multicultural population. When Honor Council emails potential panel members, randomly selected from the Haverford student population, they will ask students to fill out a self-identification portion. It will ask whether or not the student in question “identifies as a student of color” and “identifies as a given gender”. This information will never leave the email and will not be used again in any form by Honor Council or anyone else. There will be no list.

When selecting panel members, Honor Council will make sure that there are at least two self-identified students of color on a panel and at least two students who do not identify as a student of color. In addition, there will be no fewer than two students who identify as male and no fewer than two who identify as female. Additionally, at least one will be a student not currently serving on Honor Council. The procedure followed by such Panels is as follows:

i. Orientation

Honor Council will designate a Council member to meet separately with each party in order to explain the purpose and implications of the Facilitation Panel process. At this time the confronted and confronting parties will be informed of who will serve on the Student Facilitation Panel and may remove up to two members each if they feel they cannot be objective. During these meetings, the Honor Council member will also help each party to articulate his/her concerns about the issue to be shared with the other party and the Panel. Each party will then prepare a comprehensive statement explaining every issue which s/he wishes to discuss. This statement will be read by each party as well as the Panel prior to any further meeting.

ii. Preparatory Meeting

The Panel will meet to discuss the parties’ written statements. At this meeting the Panel will be given an introduction to the process and the basic principles of mediation. This introduction will emphasize impartiality and confidentiality, the format of procedure, and a reminder of the goals of this process. At this meeting the Panel will look at the following sorts of questions:

How and why did the communication breakdown occur?
What are the personal issues that the parties should address?
What are the community issues that should be addressed?
In considering these types of questions, the Panel will discuss how they envision the Facilitated Dialogue to proceed.

iii. Facilitated Dialogue

After this preparatory meeting, the Panel and the disputing parties will meet. The parties will each tell their account without interruption. Following the opening narratives, the Honor Council (Co-)Chair will guide a discussion of the relevant issues and concerns. The discussion and the questions asked will attempt to encourage self-examination and the understanding of the opposing perspectives. This discussion will continue until one of the following occurs:

The parties have reached an agreement upon tentative resolutions to their dispute. The meeting will adjourn for at least 24 hours. During this time all parties, including members of the Panel, will reflect on whether or not the tentative resolutions are comprehensive and sufficient. The Panel and the parties will meet afterward to discuss any possible additions or revisions to the tentative resolutions, and to come to final consensus on the resolutions.
The parties and the Panel reach consensus that further dialogue will not be productive. The Panel will meet separately in order to deliberate about how the parties’ concerns might be addressed despite the apparent impossibility of further constructive dialogue. They then will formulate and reach consensus upon resolutions. In either d. or e., if one party, or a Panel member, believes that a violation of the Honor Code might have occurred, this possibility will be discussed by the Panel. In order to reach a decision on whether there has been a breach of the Honor Code, the Panel may gather any additional contextual information they think is necessary. This may include contacting additional persons. At the conclusion of this portion of the process the Panel will reach consensus on any statement of violation, if they deem such a statement necessary. If the jury comes to a statement of violation, proceeding will then follow Universal Trial Procedures starting from the end of the Circumstantial portion when resolutions are proposed by the confronting and confronted parties.

(d) Joint Student/Administrative Panel

Joint Panels are to be used for situations that do not require immediate action, but which are, legally, administrative concerns and at the same time concern students socially. Such cases will be dealt with by a joint student-administration committee, consisting of two Honor Council members (to be chosen by Council and the Dean of the College), two Deans selected by the Dean of the College, two members randomly selected from the community, and two jurors that are selected with the goal of achieving a more diverse jury by ensuring that at least two members of the members of the panel will be representative of Haverford’s multicultural population. When Honor Council emails potential panel members, randomly selected from the Haverford student population, they will ask students to fill out a self-identification portion. It will ask whether or not the student in question “identifies as a student of color” and “identifies as a given gender”. This information will never leave the email and will not be used again in any form by Honor Council or anyone else. There will be no list.

When selecting a jury, Honor Council will make sure that there are at least two self-identified students of color on a panel and at least two students who do not identify as a student of color. In addition, there will be no fewer than two students who identify as male and no fewer than two who identify as female, and in the jury as a whole (including the deans), at least three jurors must self-identify as male, and at least three jurors must self-identify as female. Thus, there will be a total of eight members on the panel. Examples of situations where such a committee will be used are drug dealing and cases where legal authorities are active on campus. If either the confronting or confronted parties wish to appeal a decision made by this committee, the appeal must be made to the President of the College within five business days of the completion of the Panel. The Panel will typically be co-chaired by an Honor Council (Co-)Chair and a dean.

(e) Deans Panel

A confrontation regarding rape, sexual assault, serious sexual misconduct, and/or serious physical violence will normally be brought directly to the Dean of the College. In the event that the confronting party instead chooses to first bring the case to Honor Council, Honor Council will request and review statements from the parties involved and will normally consent to send the case to a Dean’s Panel. If it is unclear whether a confrontation brought to the Dean’s Office merits a Dean’s Panel, the Dean of the College may opt to forward to the Honor Council (Co-)Chair(s) statements from the parties involved so that Honor Council may consent on an appropriate course of action. The Dean of the College may opt to submit statements which lack identifying information.

Around the time that a Dean’s Panel is convened, the Dean of the College shall notify the Honor Council (Co-)Chair(s) that such a proceeding is underway. The Dean of the College will also tell the Honor Council (Co-)Chair(s) the general nature of the potential offense (e.g. a panel convened to deal with a potential case of sexual assault or physical violence). Once the panel has finished, the Dean of the College shall notify the Honor Council (Co-)Chair(s) of its completion.

Because of the sensitive nature of the issues discussed in Dean’s Panels, special precautions will be taken to protect the confidentiality of all parties involved, and different procedures will be followed regarding abstracts. The parties involved will have a great deal of control in the abstract process. Before an abstract may be released, the confronting party must consent to the amount of information contained in the abstract and the abstract as a whole, as well as a date for release. Input from the confronted party on these matters will also be considered. Less information may be included.

The abstract will be written by the chair of the Dean’s Panel or one of the other deans serving on the panel, and will be completed and presented to the Dean of the College within six weeks of the completion of the panel. The abstract will normally include an account of the general circumstances that merited confrontation, a brief account of each phase of the trial and the direction of the discussions, and a summary of the final resolutions. It will typically be released one year after the confronted and confronting parties have graduated or permanently left campus. If the parties involved are concerned about this release date, a mutually agreeable release date will be found.

When the Dean of the College receives this abstract, s/he will give it to the confronting and confronted parties for them to review the final version of the abstract and final release date. The Dean of the College shall also notify the Honor Council (Co-)Chair(s) that the abstract has been received, and later when it has been reviewed by the confronted and confronting parties. The Dean of the College shall also inform the Honor Council (Co-)Chair(s) of the final release date. However, to protect confidentiality, the (Co-)Chair(s) will not have access to the content of the abstract until the beginning of the semester specified for its release. The Honor Council (Co-)Chair(s) will make note of the release date for future (Co-)Chair(s). When Honor Council is given the abstract, it will be reviewed by Abstract Committee and Honor Council will subsequently consent to its release, as per standard abstract guidelines.

(f) Summer Trial

By the end of the academic year, the (Co-)Secretary(ies) of Honor Council will have gathered a list of students available on campus during the summer to serve on a summer trial. If a violation is reported after the beginning of summer break, the newly-elected (Co-)Chair(s) of Honor Council will contact members of the previous semester’s Honor Council and invite four of them to the College where they will decide whether a trial is necessary. If such a trial is called five additional jurors will be selected randomly from the list of available students and join those council members.

Convening a Summer Trial is optional, for the confronting and confronted parties may refuse and instead wait until the fall to resolve the issue according to the standard trial procedure. Transportation for all off-campus jurors will be funded by the College.

(g) Student Panel

If Honor Council is found to be (by a community member or member of Council) or suspects itself as a body to be in violation of the Honor Code, it is the responsibility of Council to confront itself and organize the convening of a student panel that will decide whether or not Council is in suspicion of violation. One dean selected by the Dean of the College will chair this student panel. The student panel consists of 12 randomly selected members of the community, 3 from each class.

The jury is to be compiled by the (Co-)Secretary(ies) of Honor Council. The first meeting convened serves to address any questions, comments or concerns regarding the Honor Code or Procedure. At this meeting the panel must decide if Council is in suspicion of violation. If they are not found in suspicion of violation, the matter is dropped and an abstract must be written and published by one of the jury members. If Council is suspected to be in violation of the Honor Code, the panel will serve as a jury to a subsequent trial. The trial will be run under the same time and procedural guidelines set forth in Section B, Universal Trial Procedure. Abstracts must be written and published within a month of the trial and must be approved by the chair of the trial prior to distribution. All decisions must be made via consensus during this process. If Council is found to be in violation of the Honor Code, it is the responsibility of the Student Panel to try to find appropriate means of dealing with this violation. If Honor Council does not agree with the resolutions set forth, they may appeal to the Dean of the College within one week of the end of the trial.