St. Olaf College is committed to creating and maintaining an environment where individual and institutional responsibility combine to promote each student's complete development. The academic freedoms to teach and learn are integral to this environment. The college seeks to develop policies and procedures which encourage these freedoms, which depend on appropriate opportunities and conditions in the classroom, on campus and in the larger community. Students should exercise their freedom with responsibility. The responsibility to secure and respect general conditions conducive to the freedom to learn is shared by all members of the academic community. The college will strive to develop policies and procedures that provide and safeguard this freedom.
In order for the college to achieve this goal within an atmosphere where the rights of its members are respected, it is necessary to establish a Code of Student Conduct. These regulations have been developed to reflect the nature of a student community and the situations inherent in it.
It is the intention of this code to clarify the standards of behavior essential to the college's educational mission and its community life. While the code is comprehensive and applicable to all students, it is not written with the specificity of a criminal statute, it is not an exhaustive attempt to codify every possible type of problematic behavior, and it is not a contract between the college and its students. The code is enforceable both on campus and off campus.
Each student will be treated as an individual within the disciplinary process, with the goal of enhancing his/her growth in various areas, including those of developing responsibility for discipline and behavior. Because of the individual nature of students, their behaviors, and the particular circumstances involved, the college may not in every situation be able to follow this code precisely. The following are seen as the desired outcomes for the student disciplinary process:
- To encourage and to teach responsibility for one's own actions.
- To inform and thus redirect problematic behavior.
- To protect the rights of others in the community.
Every student member of the college community is provided benefits in accordance with the expectation that each student has maturity, intelligence and concern for the rights of others. Only when a person demonstrates a lack of cooperation and consideration does the college, acting through its officials and judiciary bodies, take some type of disciplinary action. Behavior, whether attempted or committed, judged to be disruptive to the community atmosphere cannot be tolerated.
Students are asked to share responsibility in the college judicial system in order that they might contribute their skills and insights to the resolution of disciplinary cases. Final authority in disciplinary matters, however, is vested in the president of the college and his/her designees. The Dean of Students shall have authority from the president of the college to assign adjudication of cases to any judicial body, one of the associate or assistant deans or an administrative hearing panel.
It is important to note that several other important policies also govern specific aspects of campus life. All students need to be familiar with the following:
- Residence life policies
- Parking and vehicle policies
- Food service policies
- Telecommunications policies
- Information and Instructional Technologies (IIT) policies
