{"id":278572,"date":"2026-09-04T01:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/278572\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T01:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T01:14:10","slug":"editorial-actions-require-real-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/278572\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial | Actions require real consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that the number of disciplinary<\/a> cases against Penn students is on the rise, especially those related to student conduct. Despite this, Penn students don\u2019t actually \u201cget in trouble\u201d very much. Expulsions are nonexistent, sanctions are rare, and students don\u2019t tend to fear the fallout of their actions. Despite increasing academic dishonesty and student conduct violations, virtually no one on our campus has faced serious consequences in recent history.<\/p>\n

Disciplinary incidents at Penn are documented as either \u201cStudent Conduct\u201d or \u201cAcademic Integrity\u201d cases. The former includes behavioral issues such as alcohol violations and disorderly conduct, while the latter covers various types of cheating. When a disciplinary complaint has been filed against a student, the Center of Community Standards and Accountability can resolve<\/a> it in a few ways. If the CSA determines that a student has violated the Code of Student Conduct<\/a> or the Code of Academic Integrity<\/a>, they may choose to either file formal charges or resolve the matter through informal \u201cmediation.\u201d Further, if charges are filed, students may voluntarily agree to accept a sanction, or alternatively, should the student maintain their innocence, a formal hearing is held.<\/p>\n

Such hearings are wildly infrequent. A striking finding from the CSA\u2019s annual disciplinary report<\/a> is that less than 0.5% of cases resulted in a hearing by the CSA. Many more \u2014 almost 75% \u2014 are resolved through voluntary agreements by students who admit to their wrongdoing. The other significant mode of resolution (with a 17% share of the caseload) was mediation through Restorative Practices<\/a>, which manages wrongdoing through the use of \u201cfacilitated dialogue<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"chart<\/p>\n

By these numbers alone, one might suggest that the system is working as intended: When Penn students are caught, they maintain their integrity by owning up to their mistake and accepting the consequences. But that doesn\u2019t capture the entirety of the situation. In the vast majority of resolved cases, the sanctions placed against students are entirely insignificant. They\u2019re slaps on the wrist.<\/p>\n

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We argue that the system as it stands is plainly ineffective. The majority of sanctions given are warnings and reprimands, as opposed to more severe punishments like probation, suspension, and expulsion. This reality is apparent in academic dishonesty cases last year, where \u201cdecision-mapping exercises\u201d outnumber probations and reprimands, and in student conduct cases, where reprimands and restorative practices exceed the number of all other punishments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"chart<\/p>\n

Sanctions data show the same pattern in both case types: The softest available outcome is often the most common one. In academic integrity cases, 155 students got a decision-mapping exercise. Student conduct cases lean less on any single soft option \u2014 reprimand and probation are the top two \u2014 but restorative resolutions and warnings round out a list that, notably, doesn\u2019t include many suspensions. This analysis points out that most students, even when caught violating Penn\u2019s policies for behavior and academic integrity, are not met with serious repercussions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that students are in need of heavy surveillance or strict scrutiny. In fact, the use of restorative practices has proven effective<\/a> in educational settings. Yet, a system that does not enforce some punishment when met with flagrant violation cannot be one that serves its students. Penn has no incentive to punish students. Doing so opens up the University to scandal and reputational risk. Instead, Penn\u2019s CSA chooses to stay quiet and avoid confronting misconduct.<\/p>\n

When actions are left without consequences, we allow our disciplinary system to descend into uselessness. The CSA\u2019s apathy toward holding students accountable means their work is simply wasteful bureaucracy, instead of the meaningful moral enforcement it could provide. If you just agree to taking part in \u201cdecision-mapping\u201d to get off scot-free, who wouldn\u2019t admit to their wrongdoing? There\u2019s no real, lasting consequence involved.<\/p>\n

At a school that has produced violent offenders<\/a>, white collar criminals<\/a>, and America\u2019s first felon president<\/a>, we need to hold our students accountable. Perhaps our time at Penn is so formative that our alumni end up with the belief that it\u2019s possible to avoid punishment even later in life. If we\u2019ve never faced consequences, why would we fear them now? Moral enforcement, now more than ever, is not something we can give up. The CSA should consider this a call to action: Give Penn students due consequences now, before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board, who meet regularly to discuss issues relevant to the Penn community. This body is led by Editorial Board Chair Jack Lakis and overseen by Opinion Editor Ingrid Holmquist. It is entirely separate from the newsroom. Questions or comments should be directed to letters@thedp.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few weeks ago, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported that the number of disciplinary cases against Penn students is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-278572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}