NIU’s judicial system is not one of punishment, but of sanction and discipline Judicial Director Larry Bolles said Monday.

Bolles said his job is rewarding because of his interaction with students in an educational way. He said “The judicial system is part of the educational process. Students are in the classroom 20 percent of the time and out of the classroom 80 percent of the time.”

He said much of education occurs outside the classroom and he is a part of that education.

The judicial office has the responsibility of enforcing NIU rules. Any student who wishes to press charges against someone must fill out an incident report at the judicial office.

The office determines charges after checking into the incident and reviewing the report. Bolles said the incident report and a notice of charges will be sent to any student in about a week. “We try to call the students in within 72 hours of their receiving the report,” he said.

The next step for defendants is filling out a waiver or hearing option form when they will plead guilty or not guilty. Bolles said if a student pleads not guilty, he may request a hearing by a hearing officer or hearing board.

If a student pleads guilty, Bolles said the case is over and the student accepts the charge.

One more option a student has is to plead guilty but appeal the sanction. Bolles said this often applies in the case of a student charged with having a keg in his room. He said students often cannot afford the $50 fine, so they plead guilty but appeal the fine.

Bolles said about 600 cases go through his office that are never filed. “These cases usually require about one hour,” he said.

This kind of case entails varied degrees of counseling on Bolles’ part. He said he counsels boyfriends and girlfriends who get into arguments and students with drug problems.

“Students will come to me and say they have a lot of family problems along with stress, so they go out and get drunk. I try to be sensitive to those things,” he said. These students are sometimes referred to counselors after going to the judicial office.

Bolles said the average student he works with is not irate and bitter, but very nice and mannerly. He said these students are just under a lot of stress. “My day is never dull,” he said.

Bolles believes his job is not to punish students, but to help them grow. “I’m not out to penalize people, but you have to have rules and regulations,” he said.