What is it?
This is a more overt initiative in cultivating a healthier ethos in a campus community, encouraging social responsibility in considerate behaviour that promotes rather than jeopardizes or compromises health and safety on campus. An appropriate conduct policy needs to convey and apply basic values for an institution of higher learning, communicating concern for collective and individual wellbeing and an onus that falls on all to respect and uphold this. While its applicability to alcohol-related misbehaviour should be clear, and disciplinary processes adequately spelled out, the policy should be positively oriented and broadly couched rather than drawing undue attention to (and implying any normality for) misconduct associated with drinking.
Level of research support: Some evidence of effectiveness
Why do it?
A postsecondary school benefits from setting out and following through on an explicit high standard of what they expect and require from students in their relationships with each other and with staff. When a level of conduct is positively imposed in principle and consistently demanded in practice it gives added incentive to members of the campus community to respect its legitimacy as incumbent on them. It serves to counter any notion that various consequences of alcohol use are not taken seriously by campus administration. Beyond enforcement's deterrent value against harmful use is the weight of collective exemplification of the standard. It contributes to a sense of shared identity that beckons individuals to identify with.
Endorsement of such a policy by students is enhanced by an evident commitment on the part of institutional administration and staff to invest in other complementary concrete initiatives to nurture a community of caring and connectedness.
Who is it for?
Who can facilitate it?
How can we implement it?
Invite stakeholders to participate in the process
Adoption of a policy of appropriate conduct should be an enterprise undertaken by administration in consultation with personnel from across the sectors of institutional staff, and student leaders.
Focus on positive behaviours
The policy should express expectations of respectful, considerate behaviour as normal conduct required for a beneficial, shared learning experience and public health, making it also understood that contrary conduct will not be tolerated.
While the misuse of alcohol may serve as a example of misconduct, it would be counterproductive to spell out an extended list of examples that would qualify as violations or infractions. A succinct summary statement at most should suffice to make it apparent that alcohol-related behaviour that contributes to or involves
would constitute grounds for the disciplinary process to be launched, as would contravention of school regulations or violation of the law. In the interests of underscoring a primary commitment to health and safety, penalty-free actions (such as reporting an emergency like overdose to responsible services) may be identified.
Develop a complaints process
The policy should articulate a process by which complaints are received, confirmed and dealt with, with adjudication procedures of offenders leading to a stepped series of measures. Options could involve citation, notification of parents, referral to mandated intervention, imposition of service requirements, academic probation, suspension and, in the most extreme cases, dismissal. This will show intent to act in a principled proactive manner rather than in an arbitrary haphazard fashion.
Spell out enforcement measures
To give credibility to the policy as a genuine governing measure, an institution must ensure continuing capacity for consistent enforcement. The process of registering, investigating and corroborating alleged violations requires coordinated action and clear channels of communication among personnel responsible for collaborative management of cases. The school must also implement a strategy for dissemination of such policy to ensure widespread student awareness of and acquaintance with it.
Statistics on infractions and level of enforcement applied must be kept. Such figures should be published in an appropriate way that will substantiate commitment to apply the policy while not highlighting infractions at the expense of compliance.
Article: Interventions for Mandated Students
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