On a Halloween twenty years ago, the actor River Phoenix died outside Johnny Depp’s The Viper Room nightclub in Los Angeles, convulsing on the sidewalk from an overdose of drugs. As recounted in a recent biography, he…
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“Sally Kram, a spokeswoman for the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, said the group is working to come up with a plan on how police would handle student conduct issues off campus. She said…
Rebecca Ann Sedwick died on September 8, 2013. [1] She went to an abandoned cement plant and jumped from a tower. It was a Monday morning. A school day. She was twelve. She was bullied online…
I chose my college (Vassar) in part for the lack of Greek life. My daughter factored in that too in her college choice (Smith). But a cellphone video of the 2013 Smith College Convocation filled with…
You can solve most problems – and even avoid them in the first place – and this includes student conduct violations. The key to defending a student or diffusing a discipline code violation is clarity. Clarity of…
Irresponsible drinking might be summed up as the philosophy of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” [1] Responsible drinking – a much repeated phrase on campuses by students and universities alike – might be summed up…
The other night my 18-year old woke up crying from a nightmare. Don’t get me wrong – she’s a tough enough kid – a competitive full-contact martial arts fighter since she was twelve. But she’s starting…
To paraphrase the French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre: First, we show up. Then we figure out what to do.[1] Mentors help you do that. But more importantly, the act of seeking them makes us smarter about ourselves. Seeking…
Who decides who is being noisy? DC recently amended its anti-noise laws to specify that: “It is unlawful to make an unreasonably loud noise between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. that is likely to annoy or…
Numerous college and university student disciplinary codes don’t allow students to have a lawyer present at a student disciplinary hearing. The colleges and universities may argue that this prohibition is allowable because their proceedings are not…
o·ri·en·ta·tion /ˌôrēənˈtāSHən/ Noun: The determination of the relative position of something or someone (esp. oneself). The relative physical position or direction of something. See “Orientation.” Def. Google.com, n.d. Web. 22 July 2013. The freshman orientations occurring…
University and college student conduct investigations about school sexual assaults suffer from the same defect as Pentagon- approved investigations. The New York Times calls it a “key structural flaw in the military’s handling of (sexual) assault…
A recent Businessweek article reported that business school admissions staff increasingly relies upon plagiarism-detecting software. But Admissions is late to the game as anecdotal tales abound of wholesale abdication to software review of papers by professors,…
Claiming human rights violations, students sued Howard University and a sorority chapter, alleging hazing. The accusations of hazing included having to wear a certain shirts on certain days, using different doors than full-fledged sisters, and lining…
Drug courts – where intervention, treatment and peer accountability take precedence over jail time – have proved themselves an effective remedy for non-violent drug offenses. Colleges and universities should consider a similar approach to ADHD medication…
