News

Campus judicial boards operating secretively often are imposing light punishments on students for serious crimes that are never reported to police.

 

The Columbus Dispatch reports that colleges across the country use disciplinary boards to pass judgment on students accused of violent crimes that include rape and assault.

 

Some boards act like criminal courts even though the college administrators, students and faculty serving on them have little or no legal training.

 

Punishments for violations such as assaults, robberies and other violent crimes sometimes amount to sanctions such as writing essays.

 

Both victims and students accused of violations say the system is unfair and broken.

 

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine says his office will review how the state's public universities use their student disciplinary boards and train their members.