Course Overview:
Many Resident Directors are expected to adjudicate student judicial cases as a part of their job responsibilities. This course will assist Resident Directors and other new professionals in their development toward becoming effective judicial administrators and officers. This three-week course will provide a brief historical context of student judicial affairs. We will then proceed toward more contemporary issues, examining why we do what we do, and how we do it today. The course will then concentrate on the judicial meeting with a student who has allegedly violated policy. Course discussions will take us through the writing of incident reports, initial contact with a student, creating an appropriate office environment, effective communication techniques, questioning do's and don'ts, sanctioning and administrative follow-up. This course is designed for new professionals who adjudicate student cases on their campuses.
Course Outline:
Participants will be given some historical and contemporary information concerning student judicial affairs, and how RD's can help students maintain an appropriate and productive residence hall community. We will then move on to utilizing strategies as a conduct officer prepares for a judicial meeting. From there, participants will be provided information and have opportunities to discuss communication issues with students. This will include initial contact with a student, what your office says about you and your process, how to paraphrase and ask open-ended questions, etc.
Participants will then proceed to case studies, where they initially will try to obtain as much information as they can about an incident so that they are comfortable making a decision on whether a student is responsible or not. The instructor will provide information about a case as questions are asked.
Later case studies will have participants moving beyond responsibility and making determinations about appropriate sanctions.
Topics will be explored in depth on the Discussion Board where we will "come together" at times convenient to you, for what I hope will be a thought provoking interchange.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, active participants will:
- Gain a historical perspective on student judicial affairs.
- Better understand why we do what we do today for the sake or our students and the communities they live in.
- Know how to effectively prepare for a judicial meeting with a student.
- Know how to effectively communicate with a student during the judicial meeting.
- Know how to ask appropriate questions and get as much information as possible about an incident.
- Know how to determine whether a student is responsible for violating a policy.
- Understand how to assign appropriate sanctions for particular violations, taking into account developmental and educational issues.
Expectations of Participants:
Participants should expect to devote about 5 hours during each week of this three weeks course in order to read the online materials, fully participate in the online discussions and submit the online assignments. The final project for the course is to identify in detail how they would adjudicate a particular judicial case. This project will cover the process from initial incident and Incident Report, to the judicial meeting, to sanctioning to administrative completion.
This will be administered as an asynchronous class which means participants can log on whenever they wish and whatever location they have Internet access. The Discussion Board is the focus of online learning in this course. There will be no "real time" meetings for this course. On the Discussion Board we will spend time considering all facets of a judicial process, and how other people are practicing judicial education on their campuses. Active participation will significantly enhance the learning experience and help bring the course material to life. Participation in the online discussion is critical to your success in the class and is expected of each student.
Individuals registering for CEUs will receive 1.0 CEU upon successful completion of the course.
Instructor Bio:
Shawn McGuirk, Director of Student Development & Conduct, Brandeis University, has been at Brandeis as Director of Student Development & Conduct since January, 2003. He has worked in Student Affairs at Boston College, the University of Maine, and was an RD for 3 years at Marist College in New York. Shawn is Co-Circuit Representative for ASJA, Circuit 1. When he's not at Brandeis, he's at home with his wife and 2 children. He enjoys a good cup of coffee and playing a golf (though he's not very good at it).
