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Due Process, Fundamental Fairness, And Judicial Deference: The Illusory Difference Between State And Private Educational Institution Disciplinary Legal Requirements, Paul Smith

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The educational process at a college or university, where students often experience new-found freedom, includes adherence to academic and behavioral standards. The institution may impose sanctions on students for breaching these standards. Prior to imposing a sanction, however, an institution must provide the student with a sufficient level of process or risk judicial invalidation of the sanction.

Courts distinguish the process due a student attending a state institution from the process due a student attending a private institution. Related to this distinction is the judicial claim that courts grant discretion to a private institution’s judgment regarding discipline for academic, …