Fogcutter Student Handbook
Welcome and Updates
Welcome to the 2024-25 academic year at the University of San Francisco. The Fogcutter Student Handbook provides information about the behavioral standards, expectations and conduct processes for the USF community. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the handbook.
Fogcutter 2021-22 Update
The Office of Student Conduct, Rights & Responsibilities (OSCRR) was honored to work with a dedicated group of students and staff who were committed to serving the University community by working to review and revise our conduct code, policies and procedures. This project was a part of our regular review and revision process, however, now and moving forward included the student voice. We are beyond grateful to the group for the time, effort and energy they provided.
As part of the process, the group spent time reviewing policies and procedures from different institutions and was asked to do a comprehensive review of USF’s policies and procedures. Throughout the semester, the group engaged in meaningful conversation and suggested revisions to our policies and procedures to better serve our students. As a result, we were able to accomplish the following updates to our student handbook: Language was updated to be more inclusive, student-centered, and clear with less legalese. The following are examples of these changes:
- “Sanctions”, which are the means in which students are held accountable for violations and are implemented to assist in the learning and development of the process are now referred to as “outcomes”.
- “Resolution Officers”, who are the staff that meet with students are now referred to as “Resolution Staff”.
- “Charges” are now referred to as “alleged violations”.
- Other examples include making policies easier to understand, straight-forward, less wordy, and more reflective of our Jesuit identity.
Given changes in local legislation, marijuana was removed from the Drug Policy and a separate policy for marijuana was created. As USF is required to follow federal policy, marijuana remains prohibited on campus and at university-sponsored events. Given marijuana's legal status in several states, we believed it was beneficial to distinguish the difference between a marijuana violation and a drug violation in a student’s disciplinary file.
Other revisions (wording or implementation) made to prohibited behavior include:
- Alcohol
- Drugs
- Harm to self
- Harm to persons
- Threats
- Failure to Comply
- Disruptive Conduct
- Offensive Conduct
- Harassment
- Unauthorized Recording
- Retaliation
- Fraudulent Behavior
- Fraudulent Identification
- Unauthorized Access or Use
An additional appeal criteria of “outcomes being disproportionate given the context of the violation” was added to the appeal process.
The Nondiscrimination Based On Sex and Gender, Sexual Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct was also updated based on changes in federal regulations.
Finally, based upon the recommendation of the student group, OSCRR is excited to begin a collaboration with Residential Life to create a student conduct board to involve our student community in a peer-to-peer led process for handling alleged violations.
Again, we are thankful for the impact this working group had on our review process. As stated, we will continue to utilize students in our review process moving forward. We will now be conducting these formal reviews every three years. Any student who may be interested should contact our office.
USF Student Honor Pledge
As a University of San Francisco student, I pledge to honor the Jesuit values of the University by upholding the highest standards of honesty and integrity in my academic work and respect in my personal interactions with members of the USF community. I also intend to use the knowledge and skills I gain through my education for the common good.