The University of Scranton, as a community of scholars seeking to sustain a culture of excellence, requires that its students conduct themselves in ways that allow for their personal growth and development and for that of others in the most positive ways possible. The University strives to foster the fullest development of its students in an atmosphere of care and concern. Members of the University community are held to a high standard of behavior because of the nature of the University's enterprise - education and the development of students.

The University of Scranton is a community dedicated to the freedom of inquiry and personal development fundamental to the growth in wisdom and integrity of all who share its life. Our mission is to educate men and women in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition which encompasses the search for truth, the discovery and sharing of knowledge, the promotion of personal and professional excellence, and service to others and the community through a spirit of caring. At the University, we educate the whole person, spiritually, physically, and emotionally in the spirit of cura personalis. This education of the whole person is characterized by openness, honesty, respect, fairness, and responsibility.

Students who engage in conduct not aligned with the University’s behavioral standards as set forth in the Student Code of Conduct are subject to University disciplinary action. The student discipline process is first and foremost an educational process that is designed to foster learning and development particularly as it relates to decision making. This consistent and fair-minded process provides a means of adjudication that is commensurate with the skills and abilities of the participants. The effectiveness of the student discipline process rests upon the participation of all members of the University. Active participation in the process by students, faculty, and professional staff reflects a willingness to address the difficult issues brought before them for the betterment of individual students and the University community.

For the benefit of individual students and the entire University community, students, their guests, and student organizations are prohibited from engaging in the following conduct:

1. Academic cheating, plagiarism and other violations of the University Academic Code of Honesty. (Such misconduct will be reviewed according to the procedures listed in the Academic Code of Honesty.)

2. Assaulting, striking, shoving, slapping, kicking, fighting (regardless of who started the fight) or in any way threatening or causing physical harm to another including University employees;

3. Harassment by any means of communication verbal and/or non-verbal (Any actions, threats, gestures, and/or words directed toward another person which have the purpose of or which tend to incite a breach of the peace, create a hostile environment, or cause emotional distress to that person because of the humiliating, degrading, intimidating, insulting, coercive, ridiculing, annoying, and/or alarming nature of the conduct. It may involve a pattern of conduct.);

4. Sexual harassment (unwanted sexual or gender-based behavior that creates an environment that would reasonably be perceived and is perceived by the complainant as hostile or abusive. Examples of sexual harassment are set forth in the University’s Sexual Harassment Policy.);

5. Sexual misconduct (conduct that exploits another person in a sexual and non-consensual way, including, but not limited to non-consensual touching, fondling, or kissing, non-consensual voyeurism, non-consensual recording (audio or visual), non-consensual dissemination of recordings, allowing others to view sexual activities without the consent of all of the participants, exposure of one’s body in an indecent or lewd manner, or sexual activity in public or semi-public places.); 

6. Sexual assault (any non-consensual attempted or completed sexual intercourse – oral, anal, or vaginal – with a body part and/or object);

7. Violation of the University's Alcohol Policy;

8. Violation of the University's Drug Policy;

9. Being in the presence of another person who is engaging in a violation of the University’s Alcohol and Drug Policies;

10. Violation of the University’s Hazing Prohibition Policy;

11.  Acts of dishonesty, including but not limited to the following: (1) furnishing false or misleading information to a University official or law enforcement officer; (2) forgery, alteration, or misuse of any document, record or instrument of identification of the University; including a university parking permit; (3) tampering with the election of officers of any University student organization; (4) possessing false identification;

12.  Failure to comply with the directives of University employees, conduct bodies/officers, or law enforcement officials who are acting in performance of their duties and/or failure to identify oneself to or report to these persons when requested to do so;

13.  Participation as an individual or a member of a group in behavior that disrupts or obstructs the normal operations of the University (e.g. teaching, research, housing, administration, public service functions) and/or infringes on the rights of other members of the University community; leading or inciting others to disrupt scheduled and/or normal activities within any campus building or area; intentional obstruction that unreasonably interferes with freedom of movement, either pedestrian or vehicular, on campus or at sponsored or supervised functions of the University; taking over buildings;

14.  Conduct that is disorderly, lewd, or indecent; reckless behavior that places oneself or others at risk; breach of the peace; or aiding, abetting or procuring another person to breach the peace on University premises or at functions sponsored by or participated in by the University;

15.  On-campus or illegal possession of firearms (or replicas), ammunition, explosives, fireworks, and other weapons or implements used as weapons including, but not limited to, martial arts paraphernalia, knives (except for butter knives and kitchen knives with blades no longer than three inches), pistols, rifles, shotguns, handguns, air guns, pellet or BB guns, paint guns, stun guns, potato guns, slingshots, balloon launchers, or dangerous chemicals;

16.  Attempted or actual theft, mutilation, destruction, defacement and/or damage to property;

17.  Unauthorized possession, duplication, or use of keys to any premises of the University or unauthorized entry to or use of such premises;

18. Dispersing litter in any form onto the grounds or facilities of the campus;

19. Reckless use of a vehicle;

21.  Falsely reporting the presence of an unlawful explosive or incendiary device in a way that misleads, deceives, or disrupts the operation of the University or a scheduled event sponsored by the University;

22.  Failure to evacuate University facilities when ordered to do so or willfully disregarding any emergency or fire alarm signal;

23.  Any act of arson, falsely reporting a fire or other emergency, falsely setting off a fire alarm, tampering with or removing from their proper location fire extinguishers, hoses, or any other fire emergency equipment except when done with real need for such equipment;

24.  Illegal gambling including, but not limited to, contests of chance, illegal lottery, bookmaking, and selling pools on athletic events, promoting or advancing gambling; gambling using University computing/network facilities; possession of gambling devices or gambling records;

25.  Unauthorized use or misuse of the University’s computing facilities to include: logging on an account without the knowledge and permission of the owner; changing, deleting or adding to the programs, files and/or data without authorization of the owner; theft of program data or machine resources; attempts to thwart security of the computer system; attempts to disrupt the normal operations of the computer system, including hardware and software;

26.  Use of media or social networking tools such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter Blogs, Text Messaging, etc., in such a way as to harass another person publicize another person’s private personal or confidential information, or disparage or embarrass another person;

27.  Conduct against the student discipline process, including, but not limited to, falsification, distortion or misrepresentation of information before a conduct officer/body; disruption or interference with a conduct hearing; initiation of a conduct proceeding knowingly without cause; discouraging another person’s proper participation in, or use of, the conduct process; attempting to influence the impartiality of a conduct body member prior to or during a hearing; harassment and/or intimidation of a member of a conduct body prior to or during a conduct hearing; influencing or attempting to influence another person to commit an abuse of the conduct system; willful non-participation in the conduct process or a related investigation; impeding an official University investigation;

28.  Violation of written policies and regulations as stipulated in the Student Handbook or as promulgated and announced by authorized University employees; and,

29.  Violation of federal, state or local laws regardless of where they occur.