SEAHO Report - Spring 2017 - 33

SEAHO Features
Phase IV: Design
After the student has identified their dreams, it is important that you co-design a plan that will set the foundation of making their dreams a reality. This brings us to the next phase: Design. The Design phase is where buy-in
from the student becomes crucial. As you are discussing possible sanctions, begin talking about its applicability
to reaching the dreams you identified together. You are at the part of your hearing where it is time to put the
information gathered and sanctions discussed to paper. At Florida Gulf Coast University, in discussing sanctions, we inform our students that all sanctions discussed are 'possible' sanctions and that we use the information
that they have provided to us as a guide. Use this time to discuss how their actions and continued behavior will
impede their goals and ask what you could do as their hearing officer to assist in making those dreams come
true. Outside of sanctioning, would that student benefit from a mentor? Can you mentor them? If you cannot, to
whom can you refer them for continued progress and tracking? For instance, if a student is an uninvolved business major looking for an internship opportunity and in need of friends with similar interests, could a sanction
to your Office of Student Involvement for Involvement Advising, specific to Business Organizations/Fraternities
benefit that student?
Phase V: Deliver
In training hearing officers, we make a point to share that being a hearing officer does not stop when the student
leaves the hearing. Most of the work that needs to be completed happens after that student leaves your space. Often times, students are caught in the day-to-day of what it means to be a college student and as a result, sanctions
are forgotten. I find that what helps to avoid this are the connections that are forged during the first four phases,
as well as this phase: Deliver. The Deliver phase is simple and is our ultimate goal-that the student delivers
on the plan you both worked on in Phase II. A few ways in which we can guide, motivate and ensure that our
students are delivering is by following up. Once the student leaves your space, send them a thank you email with
a reminder that should they have any questions prior to their outcome, if there is one, that you are there to help
them. On the back end in receiving sanctions, if you believe they did a phenomenal job on that reflection paper,
tell them that you enjoyed it and even insert a blurb referencing something that they wrote. What is most important here is that the student knows the support is still there.
Phase VI: Don't Settle
In our not-so-perfect world, when students submit a subpar sanction or no sanction at all, the final phase is
Don't Settle. Our job is to continue to challenge students, despite their occasional reluctance to participate in the
conduct and/or sanctioning process. This ethic of care is demonstrated by, not accepting sanctions that do not fit
the criteria or standard of that specific sanction. By settling and accepting subpar sanctions, we are showing the
student what caliber of work we are willing to accept which will in no way help to raise the student's expectations
of self. The most important part of this phase is providing both challenge and support.
Conclusion
As we begin to wrap up our academic year and look towards summer Hearing Officer training, we cannot
help but think that Appreciative Advising would be a great guide in Residential conduct. The applicability of
each phase to what we already do is quite similar, so training on this model would be a refresher for most with
some highlights on how to take your conduct hearings to the next level. Now, we are aware that not all conduct
hearings lend the opportunity for this model to take place, but it is important to note that despite the students'
acceptance of our efforts, like anything else housing related, we cannot give students the opportunity to say we
did not try.
For more information on Appreciative Advising, visit any of our resources below or reach out to us after July
2017 to see how training on this model worked here at FGCU. Thanks for reading!
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SEAHO Report Spring 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Spring 2017