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Knowing firsthand what it’s like to face student conduct charges, I have to admit I find myself sympathizing to some degree with the students who stand accused of violating the UC Berkeley student code of conduct. 

As editor of the UC Santa Cruz student newspaper, I was summoned to defend my editorial policy before a group of students who claimed I’d dished out biased, wrongheaded coverage of a prominent international issue. 

Needless to say, I was scared. It was the first time I’d faced any sort of judicial proceedings. 

While the potential outcome for me wasn’t as drastic as the one facing three UC Berkeley students arrested at the March anti-war sit-in, what happened reveals several problems with UC judicial systems that will can only worsen when the newly announced changes take effect. 

At the newspaper, word of the summons ignited a firestorm among my peers and the staff advisors. They quickly decided that none of them wanted to take the heat, advising me to set a meeting right away to work out a deal with the students who filed the complaint.  

Their solution: Comply, solve the problem and be done with it. 

University staff told me repeatedly that because the situation was a campus affair, the whole thing could be handled quickly and smoothly. Why bother with getting a lawyer involved? It would only cause complications. In other words, they wanted me to sacrifice my due process rights in order to avoid a confrontation—much like the framework spelled out by the code of conduct revisions. 

And now students are being told that campus hearings are part of the educational process, and they don’t require the presence of lawyers speaking for their student-clients. 

It’s the same policy at UC Santa Cruz, though I didn’t understand it at the time.  

I felt like I was being pushed, intimidated and manipulated. I also missed an excellent opportunity to educate myself about due process.  

Though the students facing severe student conduct charges are threatened with black marks that can stay on their records for life, the university seems to claim student hearings are less severe than criminal hearing. 

Really? Both have lifelong consequences, yet you can only have a lawyer represent you in one.  

When I was summoned, the first people I turned to were my parents. Then a lawyer. 

Fortunately I was able to avoid charges and the case was dropped. If it had proceeded however, and I had to defend myself in what could have been a First Amendment issue, I would have been lost. Nobody knows the law like a lawyer. 

True, students can obtain legal help, but in the complicated proceedings of a student hearing it’s hard for someone new to the process to make an adequate defense. 

Ultimately, even if UC Berkeley has the best of intentions, the proposed policy is dangerous. Students face serious charges and deserve the due process rights afforded to everyone else so they can obtain the most informed and effective defense.