NC State students are prohibited from possessing, using and dealing illegal drugs on campus, but the disciplinary penalties of such are not set in stone. While nearly all cases are referred to the Office of Student Conduct, there are many different routes for each case to travel.
First and foremost, the Office of Student Conduct receives information from the NC State University Police Department or the Raleigh Police Department. Drug violations are handled similarly between on-campus and off-campus violations.
“There wouldn’t be any difference,” said Major David Kelly of the NC State University Police Department. “If it occurred on campus and we’re investigating, then we would look at not only criminal citations through the court system, but also through the student conduct referral system. We get calls from the Raleigh PD in particular, and they request our officer to come out there; then, not only will Raleigh take care of the criminal charges but will issue a student conduct referral as well.”
Paul Cousins, director of the Office of Student Conduct, reaffirmed Kelly’s statement.
“The referral to the Office of Student Conduct always happens,” Cousins said. “We help to train the officers, and one of the things that we say is, ‘always make the referral.’”
Conduct referrals are received through an automated system, according to Cousins. Later, the student receives a confidential email, detailing his or her options and requesting that the student make an appointment with the office. When students first arrive into the office, they are presented with a laminated sheet of rights before they appear to a conduct officer, according to Cousins.
“The first question is always, ‘Do you have any questions about your rights in the conduct process?’” Cousins said. “The very first thing that they do after the rights and responsibilities is to make sure that the student is working with the same information that we have.”
Although students are allowed to have legal counsel, it must be private and separate from Student Legal Services, according to Cousins.
“Student Legal Services is a small corporation that is hired and paid for by the student body, but as part of their arrangement to rent space on campus, they have to agree not to engage in cases that are opposed to the university,” Cousins said. “So [the student] would have to have private counsel from outside.”
Students are then presented with all police documents regarding their case, and they are asked to confirm or negate the validity of the information. According to Cousins, if a student accepts responsibility for his or her case, they immediately receive sanctions or penalties; if the student denies responsibility, further investigations follow in the Office of Student Conduct before the conduct officer reaches a formal decision. If found responsible, students are placed on disciplinary probation for one to two semesters and sent to an assessment program, completed off campus if criminally cited, according to Cousins. The assessment program features mentor-style counseling to guide students away from illegal drug use or to rehabilitate dependent students.
Cousins added that students convicted of minor drug violations must undergo monthly drug testing for between three and six months as part of the assessment program.
In more serious cases related to dealing illegal drugs, students may be brought in for a hearing in which their case, along with witnesses and evidence, is presented before either an administrative hearing officer or a conduct board. The conduct board consists of a panel of nine students in addition to Mimi McCarthy, chief justice from the judicial division of Student Government, according to Cousins. For students convicted of serious drug violations in these hearings, suspension or expulsion is precedent.
After receiving a conduct referral for a major drug violation, students are first brought into the Office of Student Conduct.
“The student’s contacted and they have to go to the office to meet our staff there,” McCarthy said. “The staff will meet with them and tell them their different options, and then they have time to decide what they want to do. Once that happens, there’s time to gather evidence and make the case packet of what happened.”
Following the initial meeting, students are given a hearing if the student does not wish to accept responsibility for the drug charges presented to them, according to McCarthy.
“Then they can either go before the conduct board or they can have an administrative hearing,” McCarthy said. “They could have a court case going on and also be dealing with student conduct. Student conduct’s decisions are not based on the outcomes from the courts. We have our timeline, and the courts have theirs.”
More information regarding NC State’s illegal drug policy can be found online.
