The Conduct Connection
November 2014
It's Fall Y'all!
Leading up to the holiday season, we often take time to give thanks and give back to those around us near and far. For that reason, I want to take the time in this edition of the newsletter to explore using Community Service as a sanction when working with students through the conduct process.
Why Bring This Up?
This mission speaks to the importance of helping our students learn and develop in a way that educates them on what it means to be a member of a community and how their decisions can impact their community. It can be easy to isolate incidents and only work with the student involved and their situation and forget that there is a community that was impacted as well. For some of the incidents that we see in the Office of Student Conduct, and within University Housing, friends, family members, co-workers, hall mates, other students, staff, faculty, police, and community members may have been involved or witnessed the event.
Also, for students that are arrested or need to be transported to the hospital due to alcohol, other drugs, physical violence, theft, etc. They are using valuable community resources which impacts the greater campus and Athens-Clarke County community.
Through our educational and developmental mission and philosophy in the Office of Student Conduct, we are able to have valuable conversations with students about their role and impact within a community and provide sanctions that not only reinforce this message, but help students to see the benefit of being a positive member of the community.
OSC/CLS Partnership
Their vision for students and alumni includes: active and engaged citizens and lead with integrity. Active citizenship "fosters a life-long spirit of service that compels us to engage reciprocally with the world around us to identify and address community needs through humble service."
Through a partnership with the CLS we have been able to combine our philosophy and mission around student engagement, development, and being a positive member of the community with theirs of engaging active citizens. This partnership has shaped the way we view community service and how we can help students to better understand their role within a community.
Community Service Sanction
There are two parts to the community service sanction. First, you need to decide how many community service hours to give (I would recommend something that divides evenly, e.g. 10, 14, 16, 20, etc). Next you need to assign the sanction :
- Community Service and Group Reflection: this sanction will prompt you to insert the total number of service hours. The description outlines that a student must complete half of their total hours and schedule and attend a group reflection session (with the CLS). The student must turn in the time sheet that includes a CLS staff signature for group reflection to you for approval.
- Remainder of Community Service: this sanction will prompt you to insert the total number of service hours. The description outlines that the student must complete the second half of their hours and turn in the time sheet to you for approval.
Remember that you will need to edit the Informal Resolution document - the sanction text will prompt you to edit and add 1/2 the total number of hours throughout the text.
Students need to utilize the pre approved service sites (or court mandated sites). If they want to do something that is not listed, they need to pre approve it with you as their Conduct Officer.
You can find all of the resources students need for community service on our website at: http://www.conduct.uga.edu/students/service.html
Want to Explore Community Service Further?
Benefits of student participation in community service: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.black/benefits_of_participation_in_service
Jessica Pense - Senior Coordinator for Student Conduct
Email: jpense@uga.edu
Website: www.conduct.uga.edu
Location: 247 Memorial Hall
Phone: 706-542-1131