When a student is found guilty of an alcohol violation, they are generally sanctioned with a mandatory alcohol class titled "First Round." If they are found guilty of a violation a second time, they must attend a class titled "Last Call." The "First Round" class costs $75 and the "Last Call" class costs a total of $100. However, in years past the cost of the classes was $25 cheaper than they are now. According to Dr. Richard Chassey, director of Honor and Judicial Programs at Longwood University, the class prices were raised due to a combination of ethical and economic reasons.
Nick Snead, chair of the Judicial Board at Longwood, said, "It's in higher demand for the class, given with the tuition increase."
Not only that, Chassey said, "The money goes towards alcohol, drug and tobacco education on campus," and the instructors of the classes need to be compensated, so the fee also includes the instructors stipend.
When a student is sent to Judicial Board, they are known as the respondent. The respondent enters the room along with the complainant, whether it be a faculty/staff member, resident assistant, fellow student or police officer. The sergeant-in-arms will reveal who the panel of members is, and if anyone finds that a specific member could possibly be objective, the respondent could ask them to step down. After the paperwork and other information are taken care of, the sergeant-in-arms will then escort both parties to the hearing room. In the hearing room, both parties are introduced with certain specifics asked by the chair. The charges would then be read, and the respondent would then make a plea. Snead clarified, "Every case is different, and we take it by a case-by-case basis … We're unbiased, so we don't make assumptions.
There are three pleas on Judicial Board. Depending on the respondent's personal decision, they could claim responsible, not responsible or no plea. The respondent may make the plea of responsible, which states that they claim all responsibility of the charges placed against them. If the respondent decides to take the responsible plea, then they have the option to sign a waiver that simply states they understand the responsible plea and they pledge by it. By signing the waiver, they also agree to skip the remaining majority of the hearing to then continue on to closing statements. However, if the respondent decides to not sign the waiver, the hearing will continue with its normal course.
In the Longwood University Student Handbook, alcohol violations are labeled under code 13a in the Code of Conduct. The code states the violation of alcohol is, "Public intoxication, and/or other use, consumption, possession or distribution of alcoholic beverages except as expressly permitted by law and University regulations." The sanctions for the violation of code 13a of the Code of Conduct for first time offenders is the "First Round" alcohol class and a letter of admonition, and for second time offenders is the "Last Call" alcohol class and one calendar year of disciplinary probation.
Every year the Office of Honor and Judicial Programs creates statistics of the previous year's hearings. Last year, the Judicial Board saw over 229 cases, and 145 of them were alcohol related. Snead said, "This semester, I'd probably say at least around 100, I'd [also] probably say that some come from last semester."
Snead said the majority of the cases seen by the board involve students with a freshman class standing, and according to the statistics, he is correct with 111 out of the 229 of the cases from last year dealing with freshmen.
An anonymous source gave her experiences as a student who was once charged and attended the "First Round" class, and requested to remain anonymous due to personal reasons. This source gave the background information to why they took the class. "It was on my 19th birthday, like on the dot at midnight, and I was charged with underage possession of alcohol."
According to Snead, the classes themselves are run on the Longwood campus by deemed administrators who undergo special training and classes of their own to become certified.
Chassey later acknowledged that the majority of those certified to teach the classes are people in association with student affairs (i.e. Health & Wellness Center staff, residential education coordinators and the staff from the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life).
The anonymous source revealed what they did in the class, saying, "It was just more like a discussion kind of class … We just talked about why we were there, what decisions we made and why we should change." After being asked what the setting was, they stated, "It was really laid back actually. It was a whole bunch of us with alcohol charges."
Chassey said, "To keep this going, it's important that people stay involved and that they run for office, and it's a good idea to attend any educational programs either the Honor Board or Judicial Board put on."
