Student Legal Aid
At the University of Virginia, you can get legal help from lawyers for a wide range of legal issues, civil or criminal, so long as you pay into the student activities fee. The issue with UVA’s legal department? It explicitly says, “the office does not offer any advice regarding conflicts between University students, nor in matters involving the University or the Commonwealth of Virginia.” The University of Michigan also includes a disclaimer on its Student Legal Service website that specifically states, “We do not represent students against the university.” The same issue faces students who attend Ohio State University. The university happily provides legal assistance to students, but makes no mention of university charges on its list of legal areas covered.
There is some hope for students at the University of California, Los Angeles. Their Student Legal Services do provide students with advice for “UCLA departments in such areas as housing, financial aid, harassment, discrimination, ADA compliance, student discipline, and faculty misconduct” and will even “negotiate on behalf of the student, as well as draft letters and legal documents for the student.” The catch? There is a $10 fee students must pay for the initial one-hour consultation with no mention of how the fee might increase in the event of multiple visits.
While the free legal services are a great service to their student bodies, these universities do a disservice to their students by not providing free advice with regards to university charges. One needs only to look back at Rolling Stone’s “A Rape on Campus” for an example of the university judicial system gone wrong without the help of trained student aides.
The article is generally used as an example of bad investigative journalism, but it can also be seen as a failure of UVA’s judicial system to accurately and effectively represent its students. The staff members did not clearly explain the procedure to their students and often gave them advice on how to proceed that was not in the best interest of the student. What the female students needed was someone who worked on their behalf, not just on behalf of the university.
Does any university provide free representation for students facing university charges? Yes, the one you attend. The University of Maryland has an office and employees dedicated to helping students who are in trouble with the university. The Undergraduate Student Legal Aid Office is where students who have paid into the student activities fee can go for help. Not only is there a licensed attorney who provides free legal advice, but there is also a branch of the office dedicated to providing free representation for students going through the university judicial system.
The best part about it? It’s staffed by students. That’s right — when you go in to seek representation for a campus hearing, your “public defender” will be a student. Student Defenders are paid students who are specifically trained to handle university cases and act as representatives. These aren’t law students, though many have plans to go into law. They are just normal undergraduates who want to help their fellow Terps.
Defenders are equipped to help students with cases of academic dishonesty, student conduct, and residence hall rules. Anything you might get in trouble for, a defender can give you advice on it and help explain the judicial process.
When a student gets in trouble with the university, the Office of Student Conduct handles it. Their judicial process is also run by students, members of the University Student Judiciary. You might wonder if the two offices conflict, with one set of students trying to find the accused responsible, while the other tries to defend them, but the offices have a good working relationship.
In fact, in the initial email that the Office of Student Conduct sends students to alert them of their allegations, they included a paragraph that informs the stude legal aid office encourages them to seek representation. The legal aid office is also listed under the “Resources” tab on the Office of Student Conduct website for students to see.
The Office of Student Conduct is not in the business of ruining students’ lives and student defenders are not just in the business of getting responsible students off the hook. A defender can argue your innocence if that’s the case, but cannot lie on behalf of a student. If their client is responsible, their job becomes one of arguing for a fair punishment. In either case, the student defender plays an invaluable role.
Chances are you did not attend this university because of its university representation. Chances are that you didn’t know the office existed until now. But knowing that it exists, that there are defenders dedicated to helping students, is extremely important. Students have rights on the campus and more universities need to recognize it. It should not take a scandal like UVA’s to wake universities up. The University of Maryland and its students should be extremely proud of the legal example it provides for other universities in taking care of its students.
