Talking Stick - July/August 2018 - 58

As most
anyone
Editor's note: Conduct and
Community: A Residence Life
Practitioner's Guide is the
newest book from ACUHO-I.
JoCynda Hudson (associate
director of housing, University of Florida), Alan Acosta
(associate dean of students,
Florida State University), and
Ryan Holmes (associate vice
president for student affairs
and dean of students, University of Miami,) along with their
team of contributing authors,
explore how residence life is
inexorably linked with student conduct. The result is 10
in-depth chapters plus a host
of case studies, discussion
questions, model documents,
and additional supplemental
resources. All are presented
with a focus on transforming theory into practice and
providing real-world guidance as housing and conduct
professionals navigate one of
the most visceral, challenging,
and quickly evolving aspects
of student affairs.
The following is an adaptation and continuation of an
excerpted chapter that ran
in the May-June 2018 issue of
Talking Stick. In the first part
of this chapter, the authors
discussed how institutions
develop their philosophy
around student conduct. Here
they dive into discussion
about how this philosophy
should fit the institution's
mission.

58

TALKING STICK

who has been involved with student
housing and conduct can attest, the
work is a unique mixture of emotional
judgements and by-the-book decisions.
It can show individuals at their most
cruel and also their most vulnerable.
When it comes time to accept that
type of responsibility and face those
demanding conditions, having an
established conduct philosophy to lean
on and refer to can be helpful. Conduct and housing work and the way it
is done will differ based on the wide
variety of institutions. According to the
National Center for Education Statistics, there were 4,583 degree-granting
institutions in 2015-16. While not exhaustive, some of the various types of
higher education institutions include
liberal arts, Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), religiously affiliated,
comprehensive, tribal, historically
Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), graduate schools, professional,
for-profit, women's colleges, researchintensive, community colleges, open
enrollment, highly selective, land
grant, regional campuses and much
more. Each will have differing missions, values, and cultures; however, a
solid personal philosophy of campus
conduct can be successful in a multitude of institutional types.
After considering foundational
strategies for their conduct process,
higher education institutions can begin to personalize the process based on
the influences of institutional mission,
values, and culture. Beyond summarizing the essence of an institutional
philosophy, mission statements typically outline what is valued or different
about an institution and describe what
the institution stands for and why
it focuses on a particular stance. In
short, it answers the question, "Why
do we exist?" By understanding what is

important to the institution as a whole,
housing professionals can apply these
values to their conduct philosophy.
The University of Rochester in New
York has a direct and concise mission
statement ("Learn, Discover, Heal,
Create - And Make the World Ever
Better") which reveals a philosophical
connection to one part of their conduct
process: utilizing restorative circles. As
described by its standards of student
conduct, "Restorative circles provide
parties involved in a dispute with an
opportunity to discuss the issue(s)
that led to the conflict in a safe, nonadversarial environment." Trained
facilitators help participants (which
usually include both the offender and
the victim and anyone else directly or
indirectly affected by the misconduct)
draft an agreement to resolve the problem and repair the harm. Similarly,
the mission of Colorado Christian
University in Lakewood is aligned with
its expectation for community living.
Its mission is to cultivate "knowledge
and love of God in a Christ-centered
community of learners and scholars,
with an enduring commitment to the
integration of exemplary academics,
spiritual formation, and engagement
with the world." Its expectation for
community living, as set forth in its
standards of conduct, is that students
will "uphold a high standard of behavior and personal values."
Sometimes the mission can come
from an entity even larger than the
institution. For example, the Colorado
State University System Board of
Governors adopted a set of values to be
shared by CSU-Pueblo as well as Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
These values dictate that the institutions will "be accountable; promote
civic responsibility; employ a customer
focus; promote freedom of expression;
demonstrate inclusiveness and diversity; encourage and reward innovation;
act with integrity and mutual respect;
provide opportunity and access; and
support excellence in teaching and
Talking Stick - July/August 2018

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