The Office of Community Standards sends summons letters and request to appear letters to students either involved in or witness to a policy violation. Their letter will provide your student with a date and time for a meeting with a staff member. That meeting is your student’s opportunity to provide their perspective on the incident in question, so a staff member may investigate the information provided in the referral, to determine whether a student is responsible for a policy violation, and, if so, what sanction is appropriate.
Parents
Thank you for consulting the Office of Community Standards website to learn more about your student’s rights and responsibilities as a member of the University community. We hope that the information that we have provided for you will help with any questions you may have about UTA's expectations for your student. It is our goal to ensure that all students receive due process as well as ensuring educational opportunities for students’ personal growth.
While at our website, we encourage you to explore all the information you feel will be essential to answering these questions. If at any time you have additional questions, please feel free to contact the Office of Community Standards by calling 817-272-2354 or sending an email to conduct@uta.edu. We want to remind you that without your son/daughter's consent, we cannot discuss their disciplinary matters with you as a parent or guardian.
The Office of Community Standards protects student information with consideration to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, U.S.C. 1232 (FERPA). To aid the process of working with your student, the Office of Community Standards offers a Consent Form.
Consent Form
In using the Consent Form, please know that talking with your student and working through any issues, before contacting the Office of Community Standards, is very much preferred. The Office of Community Standards looks for parents and guardians to be involved in the process as much as necessary, but also to allow students to take responsibility for their actions and decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Office of Community Standards receives referrals and incident reports from faculty, staff, and students regarding a variety of policy violations. Anyone can submit a referral to our office on our File an Incident page
Meetings are held with just the student. However, a parent(s) can attend once their student has filled out a consent form allowing the release of confidential information to the specified parent(s). A parent will not be permitted in the meeting without this consent form. During this meeting, the parent will serve in an advisor role. This means that while you can attend the meeting with your student, the conversation in the meeting will be between your student and the staff member. Advisors are not allowed to participate in meetings unless they are an advisor for a hearing under UTA’s Sexual Misconduct Policy.
Yes. Like other colleges and universities across the country, the University is subject to a federal law called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (also called "FERPA"). FERPA sets privacy standards for student educational records and requires institutions to publish a compliance statement, including a statement of related institutional policies. Read more about FERPA.
FERPA is enforced by the U.S. Department of Education. The Department maintains a FERPA website with links to FERPA regulations. Also, among the records not protected by FERPA are dates of attendance, academic major, and degrees received. Read more about these records.
Student disciplinary records are protected under FERPA. The best practice is for your son/daughter to inform you about any disciplinary charges directly. Students can authorize release of all information in their disciplinary files. As allowed by FERPA, the Office of Community Standards may send a Parental Notification to a parent when a student who is under 21 is found responsible for an alcohol or drug policy violation.