Along with his responsibilities as the director of the Department of Public Safety at Waynesburg University, Mike Humiston has been the Yellow Jackets’ head baseball coach since 2006. 

When recruiting high school athletes, Humiston makes sure to stress a particular aspect of Waynesburg’s code of conduct. 

“We are an alcohol and drug-free campus,” Humiston said. “So when people get here and they have a violation for alcohol, they have nobody to blame but themselves. We don’t keep that a secret.” 

Although drug and alcohol possession are among the most serious conduct violations at Waynesburg, both Humiston and Assistant Dean of Student Services Chris Hardie said that the most frequent violation recently has been students not abiding by visitation hours. Hardie estimates that there is an average of “one or two” violations per week involving issues such as drugs, alcohol and vandalism, while visitation rules are broken “every three days.” 

According to Page 9 of the 2018-19 Code of Conduct, students are permitted to have guests of the opposite sex from 11:00 a.m. to midnight Sunday-Thursday and all visitors must be escorted upon leaving the building. If a student violates these guidelines once, it will likely result “in disciplinary action with the potential loss of visitation privileges.” 

Hardie said that visitation violations are handled on a “case-by-case basis,” depending on the student’s prior history. 

“Let’s say it’s a repeat 

visitation violation, but it was really close to visitation hours,” Hardie said. “In a lot of cases, that could be a warning, but if it’s a repeat behavior in a short period of time, then we move it to a fine… So it really just depends. We definitely have some discretion in there to offer up sanctions that we feel are appropriate.” 

Because these violations are considered minor, Hardie said that students would be subject to meeting with their residence director if they are caught. 

Humiston doesn’t feel there is a specific reason behind students not abiding by visitation policies, but it has become more of an issue in recent years. He said that the most prevalent code of conduct violations in a given year depending on the mindset of the students attending Waynesburg at that time. 

“I don’t think there’s any cause to [the frequency of a particular violation],” Humiston said. “There are years that have gone by where we have minimal alcohol violations, and I think that’s just a group of students that we have at that particular time. I just think [the increase in visitation is] kind of the thought process of our students. [Some students think] that it’s ok and they don’t adhere to our timetable as far as visitation [goes.]” 

For alcohol violations, detailed on Page 12 of the Code of Conduct, students face a $100 fine, an interview with a designated Student Services staff member and possible dismissal from the university, among other potential consequences. Punishments for level two offenses also include a fine of $150 and possible dismissal for the university, along with mandatory attendance of a university-sponsored Alcohol and Other Drugs Education Program. For third level offenses, students face a minimum of a one-semester suspension from college and must write an appeal to the president of Student Senate or designee. 

When students commit more severe violations, Luke Payson, the resident director of Willison Hall, is among those on a panel which sits on that student’s disciplinary meeting. Students who come to those meetings, Payson said, often compare Waynesburg’s conduct code of conduct to other surrounding schools. For Payson, however, it’s important for Waynesburg to set itself apart from its peers. 

“Occasionally students will come into the conduct meeting and complain about what Slippery Rock lets students do or [California University of Pennsylvania] lets students do or [Washington & Jefferson],” he said. “We’re not any of those schools. We want to hold ourselves to what Waynesburg considers to be the standard. That is basically what student conduct is all about.” 

Hardie feels Waynesburg’s student conduct standards are consistent with the university’s history and follow the example set from the top of the administration. 

“I think a lot of it is the type of culture that you have in your university, and administrations important too,” he said. “So we kind of follow the lead of what [President Douglas Lee] would like to see and then what the vice presidents would like, and there’s also historical precedents in there which past presidents and vice presidents have had and how we kind of make decisions. We like to keep with historic patterns.” 

For Humiston, students who break the rules too often blame the university instead of themselves for their situation. 

“I think it’s ironic that when people get written up or investigated, it always seems to be security’s fault,” Humiston said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that over the years. ‘Well, security has it out for me. Security doesn’t have anything else to do. Security, they’re just being who they are.’ So it appears that over the last probably 10 years, some of our students are not taking responsibly, and they have an entitlement mentality that needs to be checked. They have to realize that there are rules, there are policies and there are procedures that if you decide to violate those, you have to be ready to suffer the consequence whatever they may be. Your actions have consequences.”