Policy for Admissions Review Involving Prior Convictions, Pending Criminal Charges & Prior Suspensions/Dismissals

Sacred Heart University recognizes its role in maintaining a safe community for its students and University employees. As part of this effort, applicants for admission to the University (undergraduate or graduate) are required to disclose any prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges as well as any past disciplinary suspensions or dismissals from higher educational institutions.

Prior criminal or disciplinary actions are not an automatic bar to admission. The University recognizes that automatically depriving past offenders of an education may not be in the best interest of the individual, the educational mission of the University or society at large. However, this recognition must be balanced against the University’s need to carefully evaluate and determine the possibility that admission or presence of the student on campus poses an undue risk to the safety, security or welfare of the University or the University community, or is otherwise, on balance, not in the University community's best interest. While the committee will exercise its judgment in a thoughtful, rational manner, in the end, the decision of the committee as to whether to recommend admission is at the committee’s absolute and sole discretion.

In all cases in which an applicant to the University has a criminal conviction, pending criminal charges or has been suspended or expelled from an institute of higher education, additional information will be requested and reviewed by the admissions special review committee.

Committee Members

• AVP of Undergraduate Admissions
• Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions
• Executive Director of Graduate Admissions
• Sr. Director of Transfer and Part-time Admissions
• Supervisor of Safety Programs
• Assistant Dean of Students

Penalty for Failure to Self-Disclose

Failure of the applicant to self-disclose criminal convictions, pending charges or suspensions/dismissals from a higher educational institution on the admissions application is a falsification of the record. Upon discovery of such failure to report, the following actions will take place:

• If the applicant is not yet enrolled, the offer of admission to the University may be rescinded
• If enrolled, the student will be subject to the student conduct process, which may include an interim student conduct action and other penalties up to and including expulsion.