ATLANTA — Members of the Georgia House of Representatives filed a bill to ban any Georgian with a criminal conviction from being eligible to receive student loans, grants or scholarships for higher education.
This would include programs like the HOPE Scholarship or Zell Miller Scholarship in Georgia.
The bill also includes violations of an institution’s code of conduct, which may not be the same as a criminal conviction. House Bill 602 includes both.
The ban would be in effect for students for two academic years post-conviction beginning at the first day of term, quarter or semester of enrollment following such conviction or determination of responsibility.
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The inclusion of both a criminal conviction or being found responsible for an institutional conduct violation is in part predicated on how disciplinary actions are handled on college campuses in Georgia.
Accusations of violations are typically investigated by individual institutions. A finding of responsibility for a conduct violation is not, legally, the same as a criminal conviction, though criminal investigations and conduct investigations can be performed simultaneously, and one can lead to another at the discretion of those overseeing the proceedings.
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HB 602 would make it so any postsecondary education institution in the state of Georgia that receives state funds would be subject to the proposed bill.
It also makes note that the proposed bans would apply to not just criminal offenses but conduct violations surrounding disruptive conduct on campus.
As for what the bill defines as disruptive, lawmakers included the following actions:
- Engaging in fighting, violence or other unlawful behavior
- Damaging or defacing property
- Physically blocking, making violent threats or creating loud or sustained noise or vocalization to prevent others from attending, seeing or participating in an expressive activity
- Materially disrupting entering or exiting or using campus facilities without the institution’s consent
- Materially violating reasonable time, place and manner restrictions made by the institution
- Engaing in harassment
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