The Purpose of the Community Standards Violation Process

As a college student, you are making the final transition from adolescence to adulthood. You are striving for independence, hoping to prove to yourself and to others your capacity for directing your own life. In the past, you may have been told what to do and how to do it by various adult authority figures. The college experience provides you with freedoms which can, on occasion, create difficulties. This is further compounded by the many people from different backgrounds and value systems coming together to form our community.

Carnegie Mellon itself has a value system. Some behaviors, those that would be detrimental to persons, property or the educational pursuit, are not tolerable. Carnegie Mellon is devoted to educate the community about the standards and values in which we should abide. Behavior that jeopardizes the values will hopefully be restructured into positive consequences. As one such "restructuring mechanism," our community standards violation process, emphasizes education by focusing on the growth and development of the individual student, encouraging self-discipline and fostering a respect for the rights of others.

• Note: Adapted from the ACPA Commission XV Model Training & Selection Manual.