AU students can be disciplined by the university for off-campus misconduct that does not necessarily violate local, state or federal laws beginning June 15, according to recent changes to the Student Conduct Code.
AU revised its Conduct Code to give the university the power to take disciplinary action “when, in the judgment of university officials, a student’s alleged misconduct has a negative effect on the university’s pursuit of its mission or on the well being of the greater community.”
The Student Advocacy Center hosted a forum on Tuesday to discuss the changes with a panel of administrators, including Vice President of Campus Life Gail Hanson, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students Rob Hradsky and Department of Public Safety Chief Michael McNair.
The changes come as AU is looking to pass its 10-year Campus Plan. Local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions have been putting pressure on AU to revise its policy on off-campus conduct, saying that they will not support the Campus Plan without the Conduct Code changes.
The campus plan must be approved by the D.C. Zoning Commission, with which ANCs hold a “fair amount of clout,” Hanson said at the panel.
An ANC written report and recommendation holds “great weight” with the Board of Zoning, but the Board makes the final decision, according to D.C. Municipal Regulations.
“It’s very difficult to get those approvals if the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in your area believe that you are not good citizens,” Hanson said. “Our ANCs have made it pretty clear that unless we put into our Code some discretionary authority to adjudicate misconduct off-campus ... they were going to withhold an endorsement of our campus plan.”
Currently, AU can only discipline students cited by police or if their behavior is clearly endangering or threatening AU staff, administrators or students. Since the Code says all violations of local, state and federal laws are also violations at AU, students can be punished for their off-campus behavior, according to the Code.
Hradsky said at the panel that the majority of undergraduates living off campus do not cause problems. He said there were about a dozen complaints this year, mostly about rental houses, including one with multiple and repeated violations.
“But now, we’ve hit a wall,” Hanson said. “We’ve used everything in our disposal and in some instances, it’s not been enough. There have been a couple of houses this year that have been horrible. We need to reserve the right to do something.”
ANC commissioners and a member of the AU community have repeatedly complained about a college house on Ellicott Street; although it was unclear whether this was the house Hradsky was referencing. Residents of the house, some members of the unofficial AU fraternity EI, refuted claims that their house was as unruly as characterized by neighbors, The Eagle previously reported.
Hanson said recent behavior has become particularly unruly.
“Reasonable people would agree that their behavior is egregious. It’s really, really loud,” she said. “It’s screeching cars and slamming doors and underage drinking and drunken disorderly and urinating on people’s front lawn and breaking fences and breaking windows and any manner of misconduct.”
Under the new changes, DPS will be able to report off-campus misconduct, including illegal behavior, even if the Metropolitan Police Department does not respond to a complaint. McNair said most instances concern laws that aren’t regularly enforced, including public urination.
“No MPD officer in [the 2nd District] is going to take the time to write somebody a ticket for being on somebody’s grass, urinating in public, when they’ve got murders and armed robberies and all those other kinds of things to solve,” he said.
You can reach this staff writer at sdazio@theeagleonline.com.
