Information for Parents and Guardians

As a Jesuit institution, USF is committed to being a community that facilitates the holistic development of its community members.

This commitment encourages the freedom for individual choice and expression with the expectation that individual members of the community will be honest, demonstrate respect for self, others, the law and for University policies and procedures.

Your student is expected to have a clear understanding of the policies and sufficient maturity and concern for the rights of others to value the University's mission, vision and goals. We view your student as a maturing adult, capable of making responsible decisions, learning from mistakes, accepting the consequences of irresponsible decisions and redirecting inappropriate behavior. If your student is referred to the Office of Student Conduct, Rights and Responsibilities for making a decision which violates the University's standards, they are expected to openly discuss their behavior and take responsibility for any misconduct. As a parent or guardian you can be an ally in this mission to protect the standards of the academic community.

In our process, you can be most helpful when you partner with our educational efforts to emphasize your student's responsibility to live within USF's policies, rules and regulations. You can also support our efforts to help your student take responsibility for their behavior and accept the consequences of their conduct for themselves and the academic community. Parental or guardian support is a key ingredient in a student's long term success.

It is important to understand, however, that based on Federal regulations the University is limited in it's ability to share information with parents or guardians. Please review the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, FERPA, for more details about these regulations and guidelines about the privacy of student records.

This brochure provides useful information for parents or guardians when their student has violated the University's Alcohol or Drug Policy

Parental Notification Brochure

Frequently Asked Questions

Confidentiality

The Office of Student Conduct, Rights and Responsibilities is committed to respecting the right to privacy of each student involved in our student conduct process. The right to review or discuss a student's disciplinary file lies solely with the student. If a student wants to assign that right to anyone, this Consent to Disclose form must be on file in our office before we can discuss any information related to the student's disciplinary file.

Information for Parents adapted from the University of Southern California's Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards