Suspended Students: Sue Colleges for Mistreatment

Two students suspended from college for cheating have filed precedent-setting lawsuits of up to $1 million against their Ivy League schools.

A student suspended from Princeton University and one expelled from Dartmouth College both claim they were not given adequate time to prepare their defense for charges brought before internal disciplinary bodies.

Former Princeton student Robert Clayton has charged the school's honor committee with breach of contract for violating its own procedural regulations. This is the first time such a charge has been made in a federal court.

Testimony in Trenton, N.J., district court ended a week ago, three and one half years after Clayton originally filed his complaint. A decision is expected from the presiding district court judge in early spring. Clayton's lawyer, Nell Mullen, said this week.

Now a second-year medical student at the University of Maryland, Clayton was accused of cheating on a biology exam in 1979. He was brought before a nine-student honors committee and found guilty, according to the committee's faculty advisor, Professor A. Walton Litz.

In his lawsuit, Clayton claims the committee violated rights owed him under the conditions explained in university publications.

"Our contention is that these publications constitute a contract, which if breached, should be subject to remedy by resort to the courts for breach of contract," said Mullen.

Specifically, Clayton contends he was not given sufficient time to prepare his defense. He also claims the committee was more inclined to submit a guilty verdict because of faculty pressure to reverse its previous low conviction rate.

During the trial, the university stated that there were some procedural deviations, but said they were some inconsequential, said Alexander Waugh, a lawyer at Smith, Stratton, Waugh, Heher and Brennan, the university's lawyers for the case.

"The regulations say that the defendant should get written notification of the charges 24 hours before the hearing," said Waugh; explaining, "Clayton received oral notification more than 24 hours before, and written notification 16 hours before the hearing; When the committee offered to have the hearing adjourned, Clayton refused."

Several witnesses testified during the trial that Clayton's defense advisor, Derek Kirkland, a student with no previous experience as a representative, had been told by committee members to consider himself a member of the committee. Clayton claims he learned of this the night before his hearing.

Responding to Clayton's charges of conflict of interest, Waugh said Kirkland had represented the defendant effectively, calling witnesses and using arguments Clayton himself used in court.

Clayton is suing for $500,000 is damages and wants the suspension erased from his record with an accompanying written explanation from the university.

"I can honestly say I didn't get into a lot of grad schools because of it," said Clayton, adding, "My GPA was high, my MCATs [Medical College Admission Text] scores were good and so were my extracurricular activities. But during the interviews I got, we spent most of the time talking about my suspension."

In a similar suit, a Dartmouth student expelled last year for cheating on a take-home math test has sued the college for $1 million.

Mark R. Zimmerman of Torrington, Conn. claims in a lawsuit filed at New Hampshire U.S. district court that the college's Committee on Standing and Conduct denied him a fair hearing.

The committee, which has since been renamed the Committee on Standards, consists of the dean of the college, the dean of freshmen, four students and four faculty members.

The lawsuit states that the university did not give Zimmerman adequate time to prepare his defense, and refused to hear an appeal despite "newly discovered evidence" and "myriad procedural defects" at the hearing, according to a court spokesman.

Neihter Zimmerman nor his attorney, Charles B. Doleac of Portsmouth, N.H., could be reached for comment.

The lawsuit also charges that the committee violated Zimmerman's rights "by refusing his request to have a lawyer represent him at the hearing, by falling to replace an absent member of the committee and by considering member of the considering evidence not presented at the hearing."

Tom Csatari, Dartmouth's assistant college counsel, refused to comment on the suit, saying the college "had an obligation to the student and itself not to reveal any information."