North v. West Virginia Board of Regents

Citation233 S.E.2d 411,160 W.Va. 248
Decision Date29 March 1977
Docket NumberNo. 13765,13765
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
PartiesCharles W. NORTH v. WEST VIRGINIA BOARD OF REGENTS and James G. Harlow, President of West Virginia University.

Syllabus by the Court

1. The Due Process Clause, Article III, Section 10 of the West Virginia Constitution, protects a student against summary expulsion from a State-supported university, since expulsion deprives him of protected interests in property and liberty.

2. Applicable standards for procedural due process, outside the criminal area, may depend upon the particular circumstances of a given case. However, there are certain fundamental principles in regard to procedural due process embodied in Article III, Section 10 of the West Virginia Constitution, which are: First, the more valuable the right sought to be deprived, the more safeguards will be interposed. Second, due process must generally be given before the deprivation occurs unless a compelling public policy dictates otherwise. Third, a temporary deprivation of rights may not require as large a measure of procedural due process protection as a permanent deprivation.

3. Before a student can be permanently expelled from a State-supported university, he is entitled to the following due process rights: a formal written notice of charges; sufficient opportunity to prepare to rebut the charges; opportunity to have retained counsel at any hearings on the charges, to confront his accusers, and to present evidence on his own behalf; an unbiased hearing tribunal; and an adequate record of the proceedings.

4. A writ of certiorari will lie from an inferior tribunal, acting in a judicial or quasi-judicial capacity, where substantial rights are alleged to have been violated and where there is no other statutory right of review given. Upon the hearing of such writ of certiorari, the circuit court is authorized to take evidence, independent of that contained in the record of the lower tribunal, to determine if such violations have occurred.

Edgar F. Heiskell, III, Morgantown, for appellant.

Chauncey H. Browning, Jr., Atty. Gen., Cletus B. Hanley, Deputy Atty. Gen., James S. Arnold, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charleston, for appellee.

MILLER, Justice:

Charles North, a fourth-year medical student, was expelled from the West Virginia University School of Medicine. He claims that the expulsion violated his constitutional right to due process.

A petition for a writ of certiorari was filed by North in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County against the West Virginia Board of Regents and James G. Harlow, President of the University, to obtain a review of the hearing procedures which led to his expulsion. The lower court rejected the writ on the basis that the petition as a matter of law did not state a prima facie case. It did recognize that certiorari was the appropriate procedural remedy, citing Beverlin v. Board of Education of Lewis County, W.Va., 216 S.E.2d 554 (1975).

It is from this adverse ruling that North brings a writ of error. Since the lower court denied the writ, we do not have available any record reflecting what transpired at the various hearings held at the University, except to the extent that they are contained in the verified petition for the writ of certiorari. However, since the case was summarily dismissed in the lower court, we need only determine if the petition does state a claim for relief. We hold that it does.

The critical facts, as determined from the petition, are that in July, 1975, North was verbally advised by the Associate Dean of the School of Medicine that an accusation had been made that his initial application for entrance contained false information and that a hearing would be held to determine what action the administration would take.

A hearing was conducted by a committee of the faculty and administrators of the medical school, and North did attend. No formal notice of charges was given to North at or prior to the hearing. He was excluded from the hearing when the adverse information was presented to the committee, but was invited into the hearing afterwards and subjected to cross-examination as to the charges. Thereafter, the committee recommended to President Harlow that North be expelled and all of his academic credits accrued at the medical school be expunged.

Before action was taken by President Harlow on the committee's recommendations, North secured an attorney, who notified the University that North's due process rights had been violated and requested a further hearing. Subsequently, on August 19, 1975, the University sent a written notice to North setting a new hearing on September 2. This notice contained some of the allegations made against North, but did not contain reference to any rule or regulation of the University which was claimed to have been violated.

Prior to the September hearing, the following events occurred. North's attorney requested the right to attend and represent him, but this was denied. North submitted a written statement he proposed to make at the hearing, essentially admitting the truth of some of the allegations against him, pointing to his good academic record, and answering some of the allegations in the notice. This was followed by a letter from a committee member to North, with copies to two other committee members, attacking North's personality and making further allegations against him.

At the hearing on September 2, which was composed of the same committee that heard the matter originally, North appeared without counsel and offered his explanation to the charges. No verbatim record or transcript was made of the hearing. On September 17, President Harlow notified North that his admission to the medical school was rescinded and his grades were cancelled.

North, through his attorney, then appealed the matter to the Board of Regents and, on its finding that due process had not been afforded, it remanded the matter to the University for further proceedings.

A third hearing was then held on January 8, 1976, at the University before the Committee on Student Discipline. Prior to this hearing, a written notice was given North charging him with a violation of Rule 4.02 of the Rules and Regulations Regarding Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, a disorderly conduct rule. There was also a reference in the notice to a section in the West Virginia University Student Handbook pertaining to verification of records submitted with admission applications.

Petitioner sought to have his attorney attend this hearing and this request again was denied, although a professor at the University, an attorney, was present as an advisor. At the hearing, North alleges he was asked to plead "guilty or not guilty" to any or all of the charges. With certain express qualifications, he admitted the truth of certain allegations and denied others. At no time did he plead guilty to any of the charges.

Subsequently, the Committee concluded that he had plead guilty to certain of the charges and recommended his expulsion. This was affirmed by President Harlow. Following an appeal to the Board of Regents, which permitted North's attorney to file a brief and make an oral argument, North's expulsion was upheld.

The development of the law regarding students' rights to a due process hearing when expelled from school has been of rather recent origin. Its growth is largely attributed to politically active students, particularly those involved in the civil rights movement, whose activities resulted in the unrest manifested on many college campuses during the 1960's. The traditional view was that a student attending college did so as a matter of privilege and therefore had no right to complain if he were summarily expelled or suspended. Steier v. New York State Education Commissioner, 271 F.2d 13 (2d Cir. 1959). It has been generally recognized that the due process door opened for students in the case of Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education, 294 F.2d 150 (5th Cir. 1961), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 930, 82 S.Ct. 368, 7 L.Ed.2d 193 (1961), where the court held that students expelled from Alabama State College for attempting to integrate lunchroom counters were required, under due process concepts, to have notice of the charges and an opportunity to be heard prior to being expelled.

It was not until Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 95 S.Ct. 729, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975), that the United States Supreme Court required the application of due process standards in student disciplinary proceedings. While the students in Goss attended high school, and were suspended for ten days for disruptive conduct, the Court did not suggest that there is any differentiation of due process standards according to the level the student occupies in the educational system. The Court found that Federal due process extends to protect a property or liberty right. It recognized that students at free public schools have sufficient entitlement to a public education to create a property interest that would prevent summary suspension.

The Court in Goss also concluded that students have a liberty interest which requires due process protection. Under this concept the student's good name, reputation, honor or integrity, which attributes are a part of a person's liberty, are adversely affected when a suspension is given. Thus, where the government takes arbitrary action which damages these attributes, it violates the due process standard. In this, the Court relied upon Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S.Ct. 2701, 33 L.Ed.2d 548 (1972); and Wisconsin v. Constantineau, 400 U.S. 433, 91 S.Ct. 507, 27 L.Ed.2d 515 (1971).

We believe this same reasoning applies with equal force to a student at a state-supported university. His interest in obtaining a higher education with its concomitant economic opportunities, coupled with the obvious monetary expenditure in attaining such education, gives rise to a sufficient property interest to...

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