Faculty Votes To Dismiss Undergraduate

At the end of yesterday’s meeting of the full Faculty of the Arts and Sciences (FAS), the Faculty closed its door to the press and voted to dismiss an undergraduate, a rare event that has occurred less than once a year in the past decade.

Citing privacy concerns, FAS administrators did not release the student’s name or the reasons he or she was dismissed, but FAS Director of Communications Robert Mitchell did confirm that the motion to dismiss passed.

According to Mitchell, before yesterday the Faculty has only voted five times in the past decade to dismiss a student. None of those five students have been allowed to reenroll at Harvard.

Two college students were dismissed in 2003 after being convicted of embezzling $100,000 from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Another two college students were dismissed in 1999, one after pleading guilty in Middlesex Superior Court to rape and one after pleading guilty in a separate case to indecent assault and battery. One graduate student was dismissed in 1997—the reasons for that dismissal were kept private.

Generally, FAS administrators and professors do not publicly comment on dismissals in cases that do not involve previous legal action.

Dismissal is the fourth of five levels of disciplinary action that can be taken against students in the FAS; warnings, probations, and requirements to withdraw are less serious actions, while expulsion is more serious.

Students may be required to withdraw by the Administrative Board, the main disciplinary body at the College, and most students who are required to withdraw are eventually allowed to be readmitted.

Dismissals and expulsions, however, are used for more serious offenses, and must be approved by the full Faculty.

Students who are dismissed are only allowed to return with the approval of the Faculty, which rarely occurs.

Students who are expelled may never return to Harvard. According to Mitchell, no students have been expelled from the FAS in the past decade.

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu.