Responsibility Hearing
In the case that Responsibility is not accepted in the Initial Discussion, a Responsibility Hearing will be organized by the Facilitation Team and approved by the Chair and Vice Chair of the Honor Board. The Facilitation Team will choose an unbiased Hearing Panel. The Reported, Reporter, Supporters, and any Witnesses called should attend this hearing. The Reporter has the option not to attend the Responsibility Hearing. In this case, the Reporter must submit a written testimony which will be read out in place of the Reporter’s speaking time. The Reporter does not need to disclose their identity in the written testimony and thus has an option to remain anonymous from the Reported.
The Reporter and Reported are allowed to request any additional Witnesses relevant to the case. The list of Witnesses requested can be approved or be denied at the discretion of the Facilitation Team, but should only be denied in case of irrelevance of their anticipated testimony. Both the Reporter and the Reported are allowed to review the list of Witnesses prior to the hearing. The Reporter can further submit evidence to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Honor Board to be used during the Responsibility Hearing. Written testimony and evidence should be provided by the latest 24 hours before the hearing.
Immediately prior to the hearing, the Hearing Panel will receive the Report submitted by the Reported and will be briefed by the Facilitation Team on the details of the Case and any pertinent findings during the Investigative Procedure. During the Responsibility Hearing, the Reported and the Reporter will both be given the opportunity to speak, or have a statement read, and the Hearing Panel will have the opportunity to ask questions of each.
After the presentation of all evidence, the Reported, Reporter, Supporters, and Witnesses will leave the room to allow the Hearing Panel to deliberate. The Facilitation Team will remain in the room, but do not have any final deciding power on Responsibility or recommended Sanctions, and should not interfere with the deliberation in any way. The Hearing Panel shall make one of the following decisions: (a) a finding of Not Responsible, (b) a finding of Responsible (based on preponderance of the evidence), to be followed up by a delivery of Sanctions, or (c) continuance of the Case to obtain additional information or for further consideration. All decisions shall be made by consensus.
If there are recommendations for Sanctions from either the Reporter, the Aggrieved Parties, the Reported, or a combination of the above thereof, the Hearing Panel must take those recommendations into consideration.
In the case that the Hearing Panel finds the Reported responsible, recommended Sanctions will be sent to the Facilitation Team and the Adviser to the Honor Board, and the Facilitation Team will notify the Reported and Reporter of whether Responsibility was found and, if applicable, the Sanctions once they have been approved by the Adviser to the Honor Board.
The Reported may respond to the Hearing Panel’s recommended Sanction(s) prior to the close of the Hearing. The Adviser shall review sanctions recommended by the Hearing Panel. Decisions shall be based solely upon evidence and testimony introduced at the hearing(s) conducted and shall be made by consensus (i.e., the unanimous vote of the voting members of the Hearing Panel who do not abstain from voting). The Hearing Panel shall include in the materials it submits to the Adviser a brief written summary of the Reported’ s response, if given. The Adviser then may approve, modify, or waive the recommended Sanctions. Modifying or waiving the recommended Sanctions should be done rarely, and prior to modifying or waiving the Sanctions, the Adviser consults the Facilitation Team, Hearing Panel, and the Honor Board Leadership. The Sanctions are then delivered to Reported by the Adviser.