Reviewing a Case

Reviewing a Case

Welcome

The purpose of this PowerPoint presentation is teach conduct officers how to review a student conduct case. This is one part of a set of training resources, including video vignettes, found on the Conduct Central website.

References are made to Advocate throughout the presentation. Advocate is the web-based application for managing the conduct process. If you need help using Advocate, visit http://conduct.emory.edu/staff and check out the Advocate tutorials.

http://conduct.emory.edu/staff

Anatomy of a Case ReviewThe review of a student conduct case happens in 3 parts:

tasks to complete before a meeting

the preliminary meeting

tasks to complete after the meeting

Before meeting

Preliminary meeting

After meeting

Before the Before

All conduct cases start with someone filing a report. The Director reviews all of these reports. When a report suggests the Code has been violated, the Director opens a new conduct case and assigns it to a conduct officer for review.

At the time the case is opened, the Director suggests allegations. Allegations are the sections of the Expectation of Conduct found in the Code that the Director thinks may be violated based on the initial report.

Allegations are just a starting point. It is your job, as the conduct officer, to gather and review all available information and then decide what happened and what that means for the student.

BEFORE THE MEETING

Tasks to complete:

Reviewing the incident report Making a plan Setting up meetings

Before the Meeting

Reviewing the Incident ReportYou will receive an email from Advocate when a case is assigned to you. Log in to Advocate to access the case and view the incident report.

Incident reports are found in the Core Information tab of a student’s case.

There may also be additional documents (like a police or CLP report) associated with a case. If there are, they will be in the Documents tab. Review these too.

Ask yourself: what do these documents tell me? Who do I need to talk to in order to learn more?

Before the Meeting

Making a PlanA plan is your roadmap for getting from start to finish with this conduct case. The documents you will review and people you will talk to as you are like streets and turns you make as you drive. Each one you pass gets you closer to the destination.

Most conduct cases are simple, like taking a drive down to the local grocery store. You know the way, you’ve gone there often. Just like driving to the store, you may not give conscious thought to your plan once you are experienced at handling simple cases.

Before the Meeting

Making a PlanSome points you should ponder as you “map” out your route for reviewing this case:

Do you need to follow-up with the report author?Usually this is an RA. You can contact an RA by email. Contact RAs as soon as possible if you have questions. The longer you wait, the more fuzzy the incident will be in the RA’s mind.

If the author is not a residence life staff person (a police officer, for example), contact Eric or Jonathan for assistance.

Who will you talk to? In what order?Are there witnesses you should interview? Sometimes it makes sense to talk with the witnesses before you talk with the student, so you have already gathered all possible information. Other times the reverse is true, and you’ll want to start with the student.

Before the Meeting

Information GatheringOften you’ll only need to read the initial report and then meet with the student. However, sometimes it will help to talk with other involved parties first and then talk with the accused student. Other times, you might meet with the student, get conflicting information, and realize you need to do more information gathering. To go back to our map analogy, sometimes detours are necessary!

Whatever route you take, document your progress as you review the case. Use the Notes tab in Advocate to input information you learn as you review a case. This keeps everything centrally stored, and also helps keep the office appraised of your progress.

Before the Meeting

Setting Up MeetingsConduct cases involve people, and the heart of the conduct process is talking to people, understanding their choices, and helping them to learn from those choices. In order to do all that, we have to set up meetings.

The office handles sending the initial meeting request to students. Most students will contact you promptly to set up a meeting. Please encourage students to meet with you as soon as possible.

If you don’t hear from a student in 2 days, use Advocate to send them a reminder. If you still don’t hear back from them, let Eric or Jonathan know so we can help out.

Before the Meeting

Wrap UpYou’ve reviewed the initial report and any other documents, made your plan and done any pre-meeting information gathering necessary. The student has contacted you to schedule a meeting, and it is time to move forward to the preliminary meeting.

If you find yourself with more questions than answers at this point, it is a good idea to contact Eric or Jonathan and ask for help before meeting with the student.

THE PRELIMINARY MEETING

Tasks to complete:

Introductions Purpose Rapport building Discussing the case Putting things in context Making decisions Completing the Preliminary Meeting Outcome Form Talking about what comes next Saying goodbye

Anatomy of a Preliminary Meeting

Welcome

Introductions

Purpose

Discussing the Case

Putting It In Context

Making Decisions

Completing Paperwork

What Comes Next

Goodbyes

The Preliminary Meeting

The meeting between you and the student is the most important part of the process. If you prepare well and have the right attitude going in, you’ll be successful.

What is the right attitude? It is a mix of authority, compassion and respect. The most effective blend of these three qualities varies with each student, but all three should always be present to some degree.


Video VignettesThere are two video vignettes found on the Conduct Central website. These two vignettes show two mock preliminary meetings. The videos and this section of the presentation on the preliminary meeting compliment each other.

Ideally, you should review the slides in this presentation on the preliminary meeting, watch the videos, then review these slides.


Administrative or Developmental?The combination of your approach and the student’s response to the process determines what kind of meeting you will have.

Administrative meetings are characterized by disagreement between you and the student on the facts, a lack of interest in learning or development, tend to focus on information gathering, and are a precursor to a formal hearing, where the facts will be decided.

Developmental meetings, by contrast, are all the things administrative meetings are not. There is agreement on facts, cooperation, and open-mindedness to learning.

Few meetings are purely administrative or developmental. Think of the two as a continuum. Meetings will fall somewhere along that continuum, with some leaning more towards one side or the other.


Introductions and PurposeBegin the meeting by introducing yourself and stating the purpose of the meeting. For example:

Hello, I’m Jonathan, the Associate Director of Student Conduct. Part of my job is to meet with students about alleged violations of our rules. We’re going to talk today about an alleged violation and make decisions together about how it should be resolved.


Rapport BuildingRapport building is a good transition from the introduction into talking about the incident. Ask the student about himself:

Where is he from? How is he liking Emory? What classes is he taking, and how is he doing in them? Where does he live, and does he get along with his roommate? What is he involved in?

There are a few reasons for building rapport. It puts the student at ease. It helps you learn about the student. You may learn the student has a problem with a class, a dispute with his roommate, or that he is just feeling homesick. These are all common college problems, and you can help the student by talking about them, or making a referral.


Discussing the CaseIn discussing the case, you can lead off by asking the student to tell you what happened in his own words. Alternatively, you can review the initial report(s) with the student, then ask him to fill in his perspective. There is no right way to get started.

The goal of the discussion is to clarify what happened, and to make sure the student feels he is being fairly listened to. Both goals are equally important.

Once the student has shared his perspective, ask questions. Take note where there is agreement and where there are discrepancies between what you’ve learned so far and what the student tells you.


Putting Things In ContextThe student is meeting with you because someone complained. Often this is an RA, whose job is to file reports when rules may be violated in order to keep the residence halls a comfortable place to live and learn. Regardless of who complained, the student’s actions impacted another person, and a goal of the conduct process is to help the student see the other point of view.

Putting the student’s behavior in a larger context can start with a discussion of why we have the rule in the first place, and could grow from there into discussing how his actions impacted others. From there we can springboard into talking about how to make things right, if that need exists.


Making DecisionsAt last, the turning point of the meeting. You must decide, based on all of the information you have gathered, what most likely happened.

Based on your decision, does that mean any rules were violated by this student? If you decide that this student violated a rule or rules, what is the least number of appropriate charges that accurately describe the student’s actions?

If you charge the student, he must decide how to respond to the charge(s). Does he agree or disagree with your conclusions?


Preliminary Meeting Outcome FormThe Preliminary Meeting Outcome Form is the document where both you and the student make your choices about how to resolve this case. You choose if the student is to be charged. If so, the student chooses his response to that charge.

The form explains for the student what his choices mean. Make sure the student knows what he is checking off. You can read the information out loud to the student as one way of assuring this.

The form is available at http://conduct.emory.edu/staff, in the Downloads section, under Quick Reference Materials. It must be printed, filled out, and returned by hand to the office.


Ending the MeetingOnce you’ve filled out the Preliminary Meeting Outcome Form together, you’re on the downhill slope to the end of the meeting.

Let the student know what to expect next: a secure electronic message from the office regarding the outcome of the case.

Answer any questions the student may have. The most commonly asked question: does this go on my record? The answer is on our website. If you get a question you cannot answer, contact us for help.


Wrapping UpCongratulations, you’ve finished your preliminary meeting. From introductions to discussing the incident, from putting things in context to making decisions, you’ve handled the case with finesse and are now ready to wrap things up.

AFTER THE MEETING

Tasks to complete:

Enter case decision in Advocate Return Preliminary Meeting Outcome Form to the office

After the Meeting

Now that the preliminary meeting is finished you have just two tasks left to complete:

Enter your decision into Advocate and let Eric know the case is ready for his review.

Turn in the Preliminary Meeting Outcome Form to the Office of Student Conduct.We also have a mailbox in Alabama where you can drop off

completed forms.

The EndWe hope you found this presentation helpful.

If you have further questions please contact us.