Most colleges maintain a separate disciplinary file that is made available to employers or agents from entities such as the FBI and medical schools seeking information about applicants. While you need to give permission for release of information in your disciplinary file, [ See here. ] you can imagine how refusal to give permission will be interpreted by the institutions and prospective employers seeking access to the file.

If you are a student who has been sanctioned, including having been put on probation or suspended, for violating your school’s student conduct code or the code of student conduct, you will want to seek to have the sanction expunged (removed) from your records, before you apply to graduate, medical, or law school or for a job. Some schools offer the possibility of expungement of some but not all disciplinary sanctions [ See here. ] Other schools will not expunge any disciplinary sanctions [ For an example, see here. ]

Expungement means that your student records will not contain any mention of your violations and sanctions imposed on you for those violations.

That means that when you apply for admission to graduate and professional schools or to state bar associations, or for employment with government agencies, independent agencies and many private employers, and you arrange, as you will have to do as part of the application process, to have the Dean of Students at your school provide a letter of clearance that verifies that you did not violate any school policy and were not subject to any disciplinary sanctions while a student, the Dean of Students will be able to provide a clean letter of clearance for you. Alternately, if your school receives inquiries about your disciplinary record, the school will respond (with your written authorization) that no such record exists.

I can help you prepare an effective request for expungement that is likely to increase the chances your request will be granted. I have experience helping students prepare these requests. In addition, because I was a professor at the University of California for 30 years, I know student bullshit when I see it, and I know that the person or people who will decide on your request will also know student bullshit when they see it. Needless to say, if you follow my advice in preparing your request for expungement, it will be effective, heartfelt, and truthful without swerving over the line to where it sounds phony and contrived.

Please note that while some schools offer the possibility of having sanctions imposed for violation of the student code of conduct expunged from your record after a few years have passed, expungement will not allow you or your references to answer “no” to questions asking if you have been disciplined or sanctioned for violations of your school's student conduct code. If you answer falsely, and your misrepresentation is discovered after you have been hired, for example, you could be fired and forced to pay back, with interest, any wages you had earned.