Exeter’s Minor Disciplinary Cases Explored

You are sitting in the dining hall, when, all of a sudden, an apple flies past its intended target and collides into a faculty member. The apple falls to the ground, the teacher clutching her head.

You are sitting in the library when a young man decides to climb the carrel and scale the gap between floors 2 and 2M in the library. He is hanging from the railing when a librarian walks in and sees the spectacle.

These two events are not made up. Rather, they are true accounts of two students who were charged with disciplinary cases due to their actions in these situations. 

Due to their less severe potential consequences, some students might call these “minor DC’s.” Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove explained that two categories of the discipline system exist at Exeter. “There are the cases for special consideration [which may result in required to withdraw (RTW)], which the student body refers to as major cases, and there are cases for regular consideration, which are commonly referred to as minor discipline cases, even though the discipline is not necessarily minor,” he said. 

“My DC was the same format as any other minor DC,” a senior said of her experience with the Discipline Committee. “I threw an apple at a friend in Wetherell after he said something offensive, and it happened to miss him and hit a poor innocent bystander instead. The bystander also happened to be a teacher, much to my horror,” she said. 

She explained the process she underwent. “I went through the same procedure as someone who was caught with illegal v’s would have to go through, so I had to write a factual account of my story, and my adviser was asked to recommend restrictions with or without review.”

The senior felt that her punishment was suitable given the circumstances. “I don't really think that there’s necessarily an appropriate way to deal with a situation such as mine,” she said. “It was just a group of teenagers being stupid teenagers, and the school dealt with it in the way that they knew how.”

An upper was caught in the library in a compromising position. “I jumped from a carrel on floor 2 and climbed up the wall to 2M. I was caught just as I climbed over the wall. When the librarian asked me what I was doing, I panicked and said that I was about to climb down rather than saying that I had already climbed up, which was the truth.” 

The student was then told to meet with the head librarian, Ms. Scanlon, to apologize for his behavior and to discuss his actions. “I met with Ms. Scanlon, two weeks went by and nothing happened. Then, I was emailed by Mr. Cosgrove to meet and talk about what had happened, and what was going to happen to me,” the student said of his experience. 

He ultimately received restrictions as a punishment. “I wrote my factual statement and sent it in. My advisor sent a recommendation in as well. I was assigned four weeks of restrictions with review as punishment for my behavior.”

The student said that the case, although it was not major, was difficult for him to go through. “I feel like I got the repercussions that I deserved for my acts, but at the same time I feel like the Discipline Committee made the whole process a lot more intimidating than it needed to be. I felt like it was needlessly scary.” 

Many students have experienced minor DC’s resulting from illegal visitations. “On average, there are about seventy illegal visitations, and around fifteen other regular cases, so usually around 85 to 90 [minor DC] cases a year,” Cosgrove said. 

Some students felt that minor discipline cases were too intimidating given their nature. 

“I think that the Discipline Committee can sometimes be bit harsh when it comes to intimidating students with minor DC’s,” an anonymous upper, who has gone through the minor DC process, commented. 

“For some people who have minor DC’s that deal with illegal v’s or other things, it can be really scary to deal with the committee.”

Another student had a similar reaction as others after being caught with illegal visitations. 

“I remember just being shocked, I couldn't really believe that it had happened. I was just caught up in the idea of getting in trouble, and how bad it was. I knew it would be a minor offense but it was still pretty jarring to have to go through that.” 

Punishments like restrictions after minor DC’s complicate the lives of many students. “It was pretty hard to go back to daily life, having that added pressure laid on to me after getting in trouble with illegal v’s,” the student said.

Another upper observed that response to illegal visitations varied among different dorm faculty, raising issues of equity. 

“I think that getting caught with illegal v’s can be stressful, but it depends on the dorm faculty who catches you,” he said. 

“No one wants to catch people doing something against the rules. So it’s not that bad if you have a dorm faculty doesn't really want to make it a bad experience for you.”