disciplinary action for personal matters?

College Search & Lists
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<p>I post this question with some trepidation about the potential for angry responses. It’s just a factual question – I’d rather not be sidetracked into controversy over what’s right or wrong, good or bad about the underlying realities and concerns.</p>

<p>I recently did some research on various Christian schools, including Azusa, Biola, Westmont and Pepperdine. I looked at the student handbooks. It seems, to varying degrees, that students who enroll in such schools agree to adhere to a personal code of conduct that regulates many aspects of daily life – including aspects of the code that would limit or preclude physical affection and contact, by consent, between a heterosexual dating couple. The colleges seem to reserve the right to take disciplinary action. The scope of the discipline is not widely spelled out in the handbooks, but presumably could include a disciplinary record as part of one’s full and final academic record from the school, or potentially expulsion.</p>

<p>The factual question – can anybody give me a sense of the frequency with which violations of this aspect of the code are prosecuted by such schools, and the scope of the consequences?</p>

<p>It is the type of thing that a family should know and understand before enrolling and investing in a school.</p>

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<p>You are correct. ! violation won’t get you expelled and I do not think it goes on any record that others outside the school would see. But if you insist you could get expelled eventually. At Liberty U they mostly charge a small fine that goes up with repeat or more serious violations.</p>

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<p>Most of these schools wouldn’t discipline students for most “appropriate” forms of physical affection or contact…(now that could certainly lead to a sidetracked discussion on “appropriate”) but there used to be extremely strict rules at many evangelical colleges. That caveat aside, I will say that most of these schools see these “rules” as agreements that community members adhere to and see violations as opportunities for discipleship more than just discipline. Student development staffs see opportunities to help students work through behavior issues first, not a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach. However, yes, if community members refuse to change behavior, students can be/will be asked to leave.</p>