disclosing housing violations Forum

[sharpnsmooth]

i was written up several times by the housing department at my school, and ultimately expelled from housing at my university for a number of violations; smoking pot, and being in possession of a bottle of alcohol.

these were all committed in my freshman year of college, and the school itself decided to not address the matter, stating that my actions were in violation only of housing policy and not university policy, and that the two entities are separate corporate entities.

do i have to disclose this? i literally have about 12 write ups for the same things over and over. i'd just attach one addendum stating the following:

i was young, and stupid.

however, i'd prefer not to disclose it.

[KibblesAndVick]

First off, it's pretty cool that your UG let you get 12 write ups before they kicked you out. Mine had this asinine three strike policy.

Anyways, I don't think you have to disclose this for most schools because you were never arrested or charged with anything. The school or the housing entity or whoever doesn't have any legal authority. It would be similar to your parents catching you drinking. However, make sure you read the actual disclosure question on the application carefully. They all tend to word it a bit differently so that advice might not apply.

You might run into trouble with the schools that require a Dean's Certification which is basically your UG telling the law school if you ever got in trouble. Because you're dealing with two separate entities I don't know if they will include your violations or not. It's out of your hands at this point, so just let them send whatever they're going to send when you request the Dean's Cert. Some law schools only request it if you've been in trouble. I would err on the side of caution in these cases and disclose what happened.

From http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... =2&t=40622
"Law Schools Requiring Dean's Certification/Letter in J.D. First Year Application Materials
Boston University
Brigham Young University
Brooklyn Law School
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law *(if applicant has been subject to academic or disciplinary action)
Columbia University *(if applicant has been subject to academic or disciplinary action)
University of Connecticut
Cornell University
Duke University *(if applicant has been subject to academic or disciplinary action)
Howard University
University of Richmond
University of Southern California *(if applicant has been subject to academic or disciplinary action)
Southern Illinois University *(if applicant has been subject to academic or disciplinary action)
Stanford University
Suffolk University
University of Washington"

[mi-chan17]

It would be hard for anyone who did not attend/work for your UG to say for sure, simply because different universities and housing departments have different requirements.

I would call your UG's student affairs office and ask them, just because the Dean's Certification issue might be tricky. At my UG any and all violations were input into a single computer database that was university-wide. This included those violations that were only officially charged and heard by university housing. The university may not have heard the case as an university policy violation, but housing's record of the housing violations would still show up on a search under your name/SID if the system is all-encompassing.

If the university is on a single system, I would err on the side of caution and disclose (again, check with your student affairs people). If they are on separate systems, I don't imagine you would have to disclose unless an application asks for housing violations specifically.

You might run into some problems later on if you try to get university-sponsored housing during law school, however, based on your UG housing history.

[sharpnsmooth]

It would be hard for anyone who did not attend/work for your UG to say for sure, simply because different universities and housing departments have different requirements.

I would call your UG's student affairs office and ask them, just because the Dean's Certification issue might be tricky. At my UG any and all violations were input into a single computer database that was university-wide. This included those violations that were only officially charged and heard by university housing. The university may not have heard the case as an university policy violation, but housing's record of the housing violations would still show up on a search under your name/SID if the system is all-encompassing.

If the university is on a single system, I would err on the side of caution and disclose (again, check with your student affairs people). If they are on separate systems, I don't imagine you would have to disclose unless an application asks for housing violations specifically.

You might run into some problems later on if you try to get university-sponsored housing during law school, however, based on your UG housing history.

i don't want to live in university housing -- just more possibility to get into trouble, and id prefer a separation from school after school.

[mi-chan17]

i don't want to live in university housing -- just more possibility to get into trouble, and id prefer a separation from school after school.

I didn't figure you would, just thought it was fair to warn you. The housing department at my UG took vindictive pleasure in getting calls from grad programs about residents who'd been evicted. Something I doubt those former residents had known about, or they wouldn't have put down that they'd lived on-campus during UG.

When it comes to your applications, though, I think you should just call your UG student affairs and see if they think it will be a Dean's Cert issue (in which case, disclose) or not.

[justnomore.3x5s]

I actually work in the office that handles dean certifications at my school (FWS and all that) and regularly end up putting together the letters we send out. While I can't speak for all schools, at mine, a large state school, we only include those violations that are deemed a violation of the student code of conduct.

University housing does send us all violations, but we normally don't include ones like not emptying your trash before a break. So the violations that you got would be ones we would include in the letter. We also include any sanctions you received. However, if there's one thing I've learned during my time in this office, it's that everyone handles this stuff differently, so you're probably better off checking with the office the handles the dean certs.

Hope this helps!