Creation and Maintenance of Conduct Records:
Review Meetings will be audio recorded by the Review Officers for the purpose of a potential appellate officer. Students are not permitted to make such recordings (audio or video) and are not permitted to bring personal cell phones or other devices that could be used for recordings of the Review Meetings. Review Meeting recordings may not be copied or released.
The Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities maintains individual student conduct records for three years after the student graduates, or for seven years after the student has left Pacific Lutheran University. Records of students who have been suspended or expelled from the university may be kept for an indefinite period of time.
Expungement of Conduct Records:
During their senior year at PLU or after graduation, students who have completed all sanctions in a timely and satisfactory manner may request to have their non-academic Student Conduct file expunged. To be considered for expungement, students must not have received suspension or expulsion as a sanction, and Academic Integrity violations are excluded from this process. The incident must have occurred at least 24 months prior to submitting the request for consideration. Requests are to be submitted through the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. Letters of requests for expungement should include:
- The student’s personal reflections and how they believe they have learned from the incident they were involved in
- Detailed steps that have been taken to address the behavior
- How the student believes they have contributed to the PLU and surrounding community
- Any other information the student believes is relevant
In considering expungement, the Dean of Students may, in their sole discretion, confer with others in the University who may have relevant information about subsequent issues, as well as contributions to the community in order to make a determination on the request. The current demeanor of the student, the student’s conduct subsequent to the violation, and the nature of the violation, including the severity of any other student’s damage, injury, or harm will be considered. The Dean of Students will determine in their sole discretion whether the request is granted or denied. No appeal is permitted.
An expungement request is discretionary and is not automatically granted; a student submitting a request should provide a thorough explanation of the reasons they believe an expungement is warranted.
Students should not assume that expungement under this process will eliminate all university records referring to incidents that are expunged from Student Conduct records. The university complies with a variety of laws that require certain incidents to be reported to various offices on campus and records be maintained, so while the “student conduct” file may be expunged, other records may remain. Examples include, but are not limited to, Campus Safety reports and disciplinary records reported outside the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities prior to expungement.
Further, if a student is granted an expungement, the student may still need to disclose information regarding their expunged Student Conduct record to a third party, including but not limited to, a potential employer, a professional governing body (ex. A state/jurisdictional Bar or Medical Board), or another university through an admissions process. Such disclosure is the student’s responsibility.