The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 2 - 20

Amy N. Miele * Florence A. Hamrick

and writing and delivering an apology (Karp,
2015; Karp & Frank, 2015) or anything else
the participants and the facilitator agree upon.
Restorative justice practices are broadly recommended to student affairs professionals
because participants are supported, have a
voice in the process, and have a stake in repairing harm. Karp and Allena (2004) explain that
RJ practices hold the responsible party(ies) accountable while also meeting the needs of the
harmed party(ies). Restorative justice practices
also encourage dialogue, promote civic commitment, focus on relationship building, and
"legitimize college policies by creating not only
due process, but also consensus around behavioral standards and equitable responses to
misconduct" (Karp & Allena, 2004, p. 7). Goldblum (2009) listed restorative justice circles as
among the ADR practices successfully used on
college campuses. Proactive restorative justice
processes are frequently used in developing
initial roommate contracts and residential
community standards agreements (Mauriello
& Pierson, 2018). These early uses can sensitize and familiarize students with the kinds
of structures, values, and facilitated discussions they may encounter during subsequent
conduct meetings about policy violations.

Restorative justice practices are
broadly recommended to student
affairs professionals because
participants are supported, have
a voice in the process, and have a
stake in repairing harm.
20

Conferences, circles, and boards are three
of the most common RJ practices utilized on
college and university campuses (although
there are several more) (Karp, 2015; Karp &
Frank, 2015) and will be discussed. A restorative justice conference is a dialogue involving harmed party(ies), harming party(ies), a
support person for each student, and a trained
professional who structures and guides the
discussion (Karp, 2015). One instance of an
RJ conference in a residence life setting involved an underage intoxicated student who
had sprayed a fellow resident with a fire extinguisher. The student responsible for the
policy violation expressed remorse and asked
for an opportunity to sit down with the victim.
The victim in this situation agreed to such a
meeting, noting that she had some questions
for the offending student. Since both students
were willing to discuss the incident together,
the residential conduct officer originally assigned to the case agreed to utilize restorative
justice in lieu of a traditional adjudication
process. With the help of a trained facilitator,
the two students discussed the incident over
the course of a three-hour meeting. They also
talked about how to repair the harm that was
done to their relationship as floormates and
the harm done to the community as a whole.
Together, they came up with appropriate sanctions for the responsible party to fulfill, such
as writing a letter of apology, and the situation
was resolved (M. Jefferson, personal communication, December 1, 2017).
An RJ circle, like an RJ conference, is a
structured process intended to include all involved party(ies) in deciding the best course of
action to repair the harm. A circle may be larger
than a conference in that it usually involves

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 45, No. 2

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