The University's disciplinary system -- often the focus of campus debate in recent weeks -- received attention again last night as a University official explained the process to student leaders.

Donald T. Suit, director of the Office of Conduct Standards, explained the University's disciplinary system to the University Student Advisory Board.

Suit spoke to USAB because of controversy which arose from the hearings of three students who protested November's CIA recruitment on campus. The students faced hearing boards earlier this month. Because state laws prohibit the release of any information gathered in a student's disciplinary hearing, Suit could not comment on the specifics of those cases, but instead gave the board a broad overview of the disciplinary system as a whole.

Suit said the University has recently decentralized its system because of the number of cases that have to be processed every year. "We have about 2,000 cases each year at this campus and about 1,000 at the Commonwealth campuses," he said. Suit said before the system was decentralized last year, cases from all campuses had to be handled by OCS.

Responding to allegations that the University's system deprives students of due process, Suit said, "We have more due process than is mandated by the courts."

That difference has two results, Suit said. Though the University's system slows the hearings down because of its attention to due process, the lack of correspondence between the systems allows the University to leave its hearings unchanged in the face of new court rulings, he said.

About 60 percent of the cases OCS handles are student vs. student cases, Suit said. He said most cases are referred by University Police Services or Residence Hall Programs.

Michelle Harmon, Student Organization Budget Committee chairwoman, called Suit's presentation informative, saying it taught her "a new aspect of the University's disciplinary conduct system."

"It seems like every avenue for appeal for the student is open," Academic Assembly President Maria Witmer said. "It's not a biased system.

"This is something for me to bring back to the people downtown," said Organization for Town Independent Students Vice President Tony Knific. "It cleared up some stuff I didn't know."