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This year will be the second year of our new
values-based policies. These policies are in place because they reflect
the expectations that are important to campus life. Also, students can
remember them fairly easily:
Respect for self, others,
community, and property as well as personal responsibility.
There are a handful of specific policies on areas
that have legal implications: alcohol, drugs, sexual misconduct, and
weapons.
The residence hall policies have been trimmed down
further with the elimination of the party policy (which was confusing
and is now redundant with respect for community) and the policy on
securing rooms (because we can’t really enforce that). The few residence
hall policies that students should really be aware of are related to
appliances, balconies, pets, posting, and excessive noise.
ASR Senator Cesar Giralt has led an effort to have
student rights more clearly outlined. This has been an issue lately,
really related to searches and inquiries by staff members when students
are suspected of violating policies. See the attached link for
clarification. If you have questions or suggestions, this information
can be reviewed. Please send comments directly to Cesar at cesar.giralt@trinity.edu
or to
dtuttle@trinity.edu.
Click here to read more.
Students sometimes think the University is only
concerned about liability. Of course we don’t want to be sued. But more
importantly, the men and women that work here want our students to be
safe! A great area of concern is student alcohol abuse. Student
alcohol-related deaths are tragic because they are so avoidable.
Trinity University has a well-defined, comprehensive
philosophy related to alcohol.
The Three Tenets of the Trinity Philosophy on Alcohol
-With 100 student conduct cases annually, many alcohol-related, this is clearly an
important campus issue… In September, the alcohol coalition (comprised
of students, faculty, and staff) will meet to review sanctions for
alcohol incidents.
Click here for current sanctioning guidelines.
We will be examining the addition of a fine for
first offenses. The revenue raised would go toward the cost of the
on-line alcohol course for all incoming students.
- The Dean of Students used to drink in his day.
Click here to read more.
- We are looking for new at-large members for the
Trinity Alcohol Coalition. Contact
dtuttle@trinity.edu to become involved. The group reviews policies,
has lots of raucous discussions, and works to ensure that the University
is consistent in its messages and policies. There are a handful of
meetings each semester.
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Are
People Defined by One Act? |
Student versus student cases are by far the most
difficult cases we deal with. One student is assaulted and another
stands accused. Often, but not always, students will flock to support
the alleged victim, leaving the accused with maybe a friend, or two – if
that – to stick by them. (Sometimes it works the other way. The accusing
student is vilified for turning in someone who was “just hooking up”
with them).
While the University’s disciplinary aims are
educational, with a dash of deterrence and punishment mixed in, there
can be a second, informal process that unfolds between students. Can a
student be forgiven for what he or she has done? Should people be judged
by one act? Does one act define a person? What role does forgiveness
play in our campus culture?
The news this past year has been filled with people
taken to task for their actions. Michael Richards with his racist rant
was one. Don Imus with his racist comment was another. Tony Romo of the
Cowboys fumbled a snap and that became his legacy. An astronaut drives
to Florida and maybe does, or doesn’t have to take bathroom breaks. Is
that all these people are to us?
We are conditioned or told to decide about someone:
To reduce them to an action or a statement, or a Jay Leno punch line.
So of course it is easy to label and stereotype:
She was the one who reported hazing. He was the one who was fired. He is
a rapist. She hit her roommate.
What should students do when a peer does something
hurtful to another? The easy thing is to label, to joke, and to
criticize. The challenge, though, is to have an open heart. We are
conditioned to judge, but we are not required to. We can choose
to judge, or judge not. Empathizing for both a victim and an accused
student don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Students can support the
aggrieved as well as the accused.
Whether a victim can forgive is another issue. For
friends, however, this is where there is an opportunity to define
friendship. Is friendship conditional? At what point does someone decide
that they will jettison a friendship to take a stand?
We cannot expect perfection in others if we can’t
reflect it ourselves, and no one can live up to that standard. Have you
drank alcohol and gotten behind a wheel of a car? A great deal of luck
or fate (or lack thereof) can make the difference between a drunk driver
who kills and one who just parks crooked. Sometimes people do things
that are wrong. Sometimes the difference between us and them is
miniscule.
I urge you to consider the importance of
friendship, forgiveness, support, and compassion in determining your
response to peers.
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