School Law Bulletin #1999/16

IN NORTH CAROLINA’S PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES AND COM- MUNITY COLLEGES, allegations of student misconduct can put in motion a variety of administrative and disciplinary proceedings. In devising procedures to guide those proceedings, college officials must consider two related questions. First, at what point does a student’s interest in enrolling or continuing in a course of study or a particular class become “property,” triggering the requirements of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution? And second, if a student is denied the opportunity to commence or to continue a course of study or a class in a way that infringes upon a protected property interest, what are the elements of due process that must be ap- plied if the student protests the disciplinary action?

This article attempts to answer these two basic questions. In short, commencing with the student’s acceptance of an institution’s offer of admission, a student has a protected property interest in his or her education at a public university or community college. Upon acceptance of admission, the property interest is only slight. It increases substantially upon matriculation. If the public university or community college infringes on that property interest, it must, at a minimum, afford the student notice of the charge or charges against him or her and some form of a hearing before an impartial arbiter. It is advisable, however, that the university or college, as a matter of course, provide additional procedural protections.