Campus Community, 

The Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices (OSARP) has updated the 2025-2026 JMU Student Accountability Process and Standards of Conduct Handbook (Handbook). The Handbook is available exclusively at www.jmu.edu/handbook.  

The majority of the updates made to the Student Handbook were in response to the holdings from Doe v. Univ. of N.C. Sys., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37607, 2024 WL 925549 (W.D.N.C., Mar. 4, 2024). The updates include but are not limited to: 

• New procedures for cases with a potential for an outcome of expulsion or a permanent transcript notation to ensure a Responding Party/Respondent can conduct cross-examination with any participant who is offering statements against them in any of the non-organizational accountability processes.
• Added language that if any participant, who is offering statements against the Responding Party/Respondent, chooses not to submit to cross-examination meaningfully, as determined by the decision-maker, then the decision-maker may not be able to assign an outcome of expulsion from JMU if a Responding Party/Respondent is found responsible for violating university policy.
• Added a definition of cross-examination in the applicable processes. 

A few other updates were made for clarity: 

• A few updates were made to the Hazing policy.
• As currently stated in the Student Handbook, “OSARP will grant immunity from individual disciplinary action based on hazing or personal consumption of drugs or alcohol where such disclosure is made by a bystander not involved in such acts in conjunction with a good faith report of an act of hazing in advance of or during an incident of hazing that causes injury or is likely to cause injury to a person.”
  • In this update, OSARP added a definition of a “good faith report” and the criteria used by OSARP to determine a “good faith report,” in the applicable processes.
• Updates were made to provide the ability for the Investigator to acquire and incorporate additional information regarding the alleged policy violation(s) in the Organizational Accountability Process after a final response is received by the Organizational Representative. 

The above revisions incorporated into the Handbook were vetted and approved by the Vice President for Student Affairs, as required by the section in the Handbook titled “Changes and Amendments”.

It is the responsibility of every student, including recognized student organizations, to know and follow the policies outlined in the JMU Student Handbook along with federal, state, and local laws. The Handbook outlines the processes used to resolve allegations of individual student misconduct, recognized student organization misconduct, and misconduct by student groups, which include allegations of hazing, as well as the rights afforded in the processes, including: the Individual Accountability Process, Individual Interim Suspension Process, Organizational Accountability Process, Sexual Misconduct Accountability Process, and Title IX Sexual Harassment Adjudication Process.

In addition to knowing and following the policies outlined in the Handbook, students are expected to actively monitor their @dukes.jmu.edu email account. This is JMU’s official means of communication with students as outlined in JMU Policy 1209: Electronic Messaging. As such, OSARP will send notification of alleged policy violation(s) and other important information directly to official JMU email addresses.

To review the Handbook, visit www.jmu.edu/handbook and use the navigation tabs to the left of the page. If you have questions about any of the policies or procedures listed in the Handbook, please contact OSARP at 540-568-6218 or at osarp@jmu.edu.

We hope you have a safe and successful rest of your semester!

Sincerely, 

The Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices

Campus Community, 

The Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices (OSARP) has published the 2025-2026 JMU Student Accountability Process and Standards of Conduct Handbook (Handbook). The Handbook is available exclusively at www.jmu.edu/handbook. 

A few of the more significant updates made to the Handbook include: 

• Revisions to several policies, including: 
  • Adding references to safety regulations set forth by JMU Alternative Transportation in both the Endangerment and Noncompliance policies.
  • Clarifications to the prohibited behavior defined in various policies, including Falsification of Information, Gambling, and Unauthorized Use, Possession, or Transfer of Item(s).
  • Reformatting the Solicitation and Public Posting policy to provide references to the locations around campus where the regulations for soliciting and public posting are hosted.
  • Updating the Harassment policy to include more specific information about JMU’s Notice of Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity.
  • Updating the Hazing policy based on the new federal regulations set forth in the “Stop Campus Hazing Act”. Additional updates were made to the Hazing policy to enhance clarity, reduce repetitiveness, include references to wellbeing to existing definitions, and provide more examples of prohibited behavior.
• Revisions to the Organizational Accountability Process (OAP), to make updates regarding best practices, streamline the process to reduce the number of meetings required of responding organizations, enhance clarity of the process, and address requirements of the federal “Stop Campus Hazing Act”.
• Revisions to relevant sections of the Handbook to include references to Interim Suspensions initiated by the Dean of Students. Interim Suspensions initiated by the Dean of Students are separate and distinct from Interim Suspensions enacted by OSARP.
• Revisions to the Sexual Misconduct Accountability Process, including: 
  • Revising the terms of Responding Party and Reporting Party to Respondent and Complainant, respectively. This revision is to further align with procedures hosted by the Title IX Office and terms used in federal regulations.  
  • Extending the appeal submission timeline to five business days after receipt of notice of the availability of the Sexual Misconduct Case Review decision and rationale. 
  • Updating the definition of relevant evidence for clarification and to more closely align with the Title IX Office’s definition.
• Revisions to the Title IX Sexual Harassment Adjudication Process, including: 
  • Extending the appeal submission timeline to five business days after receipt of notice of the availability of the Title IX Sexual Harassment Case Review decision and rationale. 
  • Updating the definition of relevant evidence for clarification and to more closely align with the Title IX Office’s definition. 
• Revisions to the Individual Case Outcomes, including the addition of a specific “Student Diploma Hold” outcome to align with current practice. 

In addition to the updates to the Student Handbook, a webpage has been created that is dedicated specifically to hazing prevention at JMU to consolidate information about policy and laws, reporting allegations of hazing, investigating allegations of hazing, organizational records for hazing, and programming for hazing prevention and awareness. This webpage can be accessed via the following link: https://www.jmu.edu/osarp/hazingpreventionatjmu.shtml 

The above revisions and other procedural changes incorporated into the Handbook were sent to the Student Handbook Review Board for feedback and then vetted and approved by the Vice President for Student Affairs, as required by the section in the Handbook titled “Changes and Amendments”. 

It is the responsibility of every student, including recognized student organizations, to know and follow the policies outlined in the JMU Student Handbook along with federal, state, and local laws. The Handbook outlines the processes used to resolve allegations of student misconduct, recognized student organization misconduct, and student group misconduct, when applicable, as well as the rights afforded in the processes, including: the Individual Accountability Process, Individual Interim Suspension Process, Organizational Accountability Process, Sexual Misconduct Accountability Process, and Title IX Sexual Harassment Adjudication Process. 

In addition to knowing and following the policies outlined in the Handbook, students are expected to actively monitor their @dukes.jmu.edu email account. This is JMU’s official means of communication with students as outlined in JMU Policy 1209: Electronic Messaging. As such, OSARP will send notification of alleged policy violation(s) and other important information directly to official JMU email addresses. 

To review the Handbook, visit www.jmu.edu/handbook and use the navigation tabs to the left of the page. If you have questions about any of the policies or procedures listed in the Handbook, please contact OSARP at 540-568-6218 or at osarp@jmu.edu. 

We hope you have a safe and successful semester! 

Sincerely, 

The Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices