The University of Scranton, as a community of scholars seeking to sustain a culture of excellence, requires that its students conduct themselves in ways that allow for their personal growth and development and for that of others in the most positive ways possible. Freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of the individual must be preserved. These personal freedoms must be constantly balanced against our mutual responsibility for supporting and nurturing a community whose ministry of education is informed by the vision of life contained in both the Gospel and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The University strives to foster the fullest development of its students in an atmosphere of care and concern. Members of the University community are held to a high standard of behavior because of the nature of our enterprise - education and the development of students.

The adjudication of matters of alleged student misconduct is first and foremost, an educational process. Therefore, the University's judicial process is designed so that students who encounter the process are able to learn from it and make future decisions accordingly. The procedures of the judicial process have been established to provide a means of adjudication commensurate with the skills and abilities of the participants. The judicial system is not a public court of law; it should not be viewed as duplicative of such a court. However, this does not diminish the role that the University's judicial system plays in the proper adjudication of violations of the Student Code of Conduct.