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Arrest, conviction of offense is big deal for students by Joe Good University Counsel Many of us were a little more adventuresome during our undergraduate years—there were frat parties, keg parties and tailgating. Unfortunately, many of us met our local law enforcement officers and were introduced to our state’s judicial system. If we were lucky, we were offered a pre-trial intervention program. We did a week or two of public service and the charges were dropped. What we did not realize was that unless we petitioned the court to expunge our records, we may still have an arrest record and perhaps a conviction record. You may think that an arrest and conviction of a minor offense is no “big deal.” It becomes a big deal if you are asked on an application for MUSC, a professional licensing board or a job application, whether you have ever been arrested or convicted. It will also impact you if you are ever arrested for a similar or related charge later in your life. The results may be devastating.  You may not be accepted in a graduate program, accepted by another hospital for a clinical rotation, and you may even be dismissed from MUSC for falsifying your application.  Any subsequent arrest in your lifetime will be harder to negotiate if you have a prior record. If you feel that you may be one of these people, you need to contact the court that you appeared before and obtain a copy of the arrest warrant/ticket and documentation showing the disposition of the charge. You should then contact the solicitor’s office or your state prosecutor in the area where your court is located and request that the public prosecutor prepare and submit an order of expungement for you. This process can be accomplished in about three months. Although arrests and convictions for many traffic-related violations cannot be expunged, most non-violent crimes can. You owe it to yourself to investigate your status before you get into an embarrassing situation. It is the hope of your student honor council and the university legal counsel that alerting you to this potential problem may prevent future problems.