The Resident Judicial Board exists principally to assist the university as well as the Department of Resident Life maintain a healthy academic community. The board consists of approximately four to five students, who are given the authority to oversee disciplinary hearings by adjudicating cases based upon both the University of Maryland’s Code of Student Conduct and the Department of Resident Life’s Residence Hall Rules. The Department of Resident Life entrust these students to carefully deliberate over issues of responsibility and to make sanctioning recommendations based upon their findings. These recommendations can range from, probation to housing termination to suspension or expulsion from the university.

University of Maryland has very particular yet flexible parameters for how we define a healthy community; and we depend upon the well trained and well equipped students within the Resident Judicial Board to help us define and re-define these parameters when certain incidents arise within the residence halls. Resident Judicial Board is guided by particular principles that the department of Resident Life constructed to help assist our board members when making possibly life changing decisions for the students that sit before them.

There are two documents, created by the Department of Resident Life, which assists the Resident Judicial Board; they are the Multicultural Philosophy and the Community Living Principles. The Multicultural Philosophy assists our board members to better understand how each student at this university has a right to their particular identity and how, for our residence hall communities to thrive, we must highlight to those who come before the boards, that each individual must have a deep understanding of the rights and responsibilities that are the foundation of our residence hall communities. The Multicultural Philosophy also helps Resident Judicial Board “objectively” make decisions about the students who come before them, regardless of ability, class, ethnicity race, religion, or sexual orientation.

The Community Living Principles will also play a very crucial role in how Resident Judicial Board members hold the students before them accountable for their behavior. In this document we ask students to be “Safe, Civil, Cooperative, and Involved”. These four tenets are the building blocks for the Residence Hall Rules that Resident Judicial Board applies when conducting a hearing. Resident Life is proud to be working with such talented and driven students and we welcome any and all who seek to be actively involved in upholding community standards for the University of Maryland community and who seek to embrace a challenging and empowering experience with the Resident Judicial Board. The time commitment varies widely depending on the number of cases in any given semester. However, the maximum number of hours would be 12 per month (3 per week). Hearings begin at 7 p.m., and end no later than 10 p.m. In addition, attendance at various training sessions is required, and students are expected to participate on one committee in the Office of Judicial Programs (e.g. selection, education. . .).

If you want to join the Resident Judicial Board, please look for notices in the spring semester for how to apply. If you have any questions about the Resident Judicial Board, please contact Kevin Pitts at kpitts2@umd.edu.

Kevin Lawrence Pitts
Resident Judicial Board Coordinator
Office of Rights & Responsibilities
Department of Resident Life