"We're all human; we all make mistakes, but somebody has to be held responsible," said Adam Tank, senior in microbiology and Student Governing Association's attorney general.

How people are held responsible for drug or alcohol-related infractions varies depending on previous infractions, gravity of the violation and extenuating circumstances. However, there are a few processes that are the same for any K-State student and can be useful to understand before getting caught.

"Sanctions are not my favorite part of the job, but what I've found is students are pretty accepting once they know it's not heaping more punishment on what happened to them downtown," said Karen Low, assistant director of the Office of Student Life.

Low described the process after a code of conduct violation as simple: The office receives a police report, reviews it and determines if the code of conduct was violated. If so, Tank sends a code of conduct violation complaint to the student.

After receiving the complaint, the student decides whether he or she would prefer to meet with Low for an administrative review or go before a student review board for a student-run hearing. The review board is made up of five K-State students who are chosen through an application process conducted each spring. After the hearing or administrative review, the student and Low or the review board work together to decide an appropriate sanction.

"The beauty of our judicial system," Tank said, "is that we have the option of giving a student a slap on the wrist in the form of a written warning all the way up to expulsion, and we have a lot of room for creativity in our sanctions."

Low said it is important to keep in mind that code of conduct violations are completely separate charges made by the police, and violations in K-State residence halls and greek houses go through their own processes, not through the Office of Student Life.

Brandon Harder, president of Interfraternity Council and senior in animal sciences and industry, said the process for sanctioning greek houses is similar to that of an on-campus violation, but IFC does not "adjudicate actual chapter members," and only steps in if "the violation is at a registered event or if it's a house-wide problem."

Both Harder and Tank emphasized the importance of "transparency" in their sanctioning processes and said students and chapters always have an opportunity to give their own input and offer ideas for an appropriate sanction.

"We are always focused on helping people move forward," Harder said, adding that greek sanctions are always focused on matching the violation in both gravity and subject matter.

In addition to making the sanction match the crime, he said the sanctioning process includes "room for targeting problems and seeing if there's room for further help."

"For example," Harder said, "if Jimmy comes before the council and tells us he was really stressed because he failed three tests that week, and he's going through problems with his family so he drank an entire bottle of alcohol, we can treat that differently than someone who just gets trashed all the time and doesn't care.

"We can then look into ways to help Jimmy learn to deal with his stress and maybe improve his study habits instead of just focusing on the fact that he was drunk at an event."

Nick Lander, assistant director of the Department of Housing and Dining Services, said violations within residence halls are taken seriously, but the process, like any other on-campus infraction, is designed to help educate the students, not punish them.

"We want students to be held responsible for violations at an appropriate level, but we also want students to learn from their mistake," Lander said. "If we can help students turn a violation into a life lesson that helps them learn from what they did wrong, that's what we want to do."

Lander said the process for investigating a possible violation within a residence hall begins if a staff member or other resident documents a possible violation. After that, if the violation is alcohol-related, the student generally meets with the residence life coordinator or assistant residence life coordinator of the building where the infraction took place. Lander said the purpose of the meeting is to collect information and determine whether or not the student actually committed an infraction.

If the student violated the residence hall's rules, the student usually has to participate in Project ABC, which is run through University Counseling Services, Lander said. He also said students on their first offenses need only attend the most basic version of Project ABC, while students on their second offenses usually have to attend a version of the program that also involves counseling. Students with three or more violations "become a more serious situation" and meet with him to determine if they need "to modify or terminate the housing contract."

Lander said, unlike alcohol violations, most people who are charged with drug violations meet directly with Lander and a representative from the Office of Student Life for "a contractual hearing." All three discuss the violation and decide whether they need to modify or terminate the student's housing contract. He also said a modification usually involves either moving the student to a different housing location or "some other alteration to their current assignment," and the purpose of a contract modification is to give the student a second opportunity to remain living within the residence halls.

Low said students should consider the long-term effects of their decisions before drinking, and keep in mind the Office of Student Life receives forms daily from law schools, offices of admissions, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and future employers asking if students have ever received disciplinary action from K-State. He said the answer to these questions could be life-changing.