Talking Stick - July/August 2018 - 70

 55  CONTINUED

 63  CONTINUED

NEXT WAVE SUSTAINABILITY

A PHILOSOPHICAL FIT

and Texas continue to illustrate this
challenge. The need for sustainable
practices is not a fad and shows no sign
of going away any time soon. The question is not if but how campuses can be
part of the bigger solution. 
Tonie Miyamoto is the director of
communications and sustainability at
Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
 tonie.miyamoto@colostate.edu

 RESOURCES
Goddard Institute for Space
Studies, NASA, NOAA Data Show
2016 Warmest Year on Record
Globally (January 17, 2017).
Will Goodbody, "2017 Most
Expensive Year on Record for
Climate Events - WMO," RTÉ
(March 22, 2018).
Peter Holley, "Uber Signs Deal to Buy
Up to 24,000 Autonomous Vehicles
from Volvo," The Washington Post
(November 20, 2017).
New Buildings Institute, 2016
List of Zero Net Energy Buildings
(https://newbuildings.org/
wp-content/uploads/2016/10/
GTZ_2016_List.pdf).
RethinkX, New Report: Dueto Major Transportation Disruption, 95%
of U.S. Car Miles Will Be Traveled
in Self-Driving, Electric, Shared
Vehicles by 2030 (www.rethinkx.
com/press-release/2017/5/3/newreport-due-to-major-transportationdisruption-95-of-us-car-miles-willbe-traveled-in-self-driving-electricshared-vehicles-by-2030).
Second Nature, Climate Leadership
Network (http://secondnature.org/
who-we-are/network/).
The Princeton Review, The
Princeton Review 2017 College
Hopes & Worries Survey Report
(www.princetonreview.com/
cms-content/cohowo-surveyreport-2017.pdf).

TALKING STICK

residential education, campus conduct, residential conduct, community
standards, student conduct, student
rights and responsibilities, student
integrity, dean of student's office, and
more. With so many sub-systems, it is
important to know who is responsible
for issues of student conduct on campus and in residence halls. Who hears
which cases? What is the synchronization between parties? How can
all parties remain consistent in their
philosophies?
In his analysis of how he managed
to shape a consistent conduct philosophy despite institutional differences,
Patel makes an important point about
the centrality of the student's experience and the necessity of understanding what is going on in their world.
"When I started out, my conduct philosophy wasn't very developed. In my
first job, our staffing was stretched so
thin, we focused on functioning. Only
when I could later track cases through
an online conduct system did I start
to see the bigger picture and develop
my own philosophy. I started by using
common sense and talked to students
about what spoke to their experiences.
When I moved to a different institution, I learned there were other ways
of conducting conduct meetings. Now

I use my intuition to figure out what
is going on in a student's world that
would lead them to the decisions they
made. As much as I'd like to follow
one over-arching conduct philosophy,
sometimes that isn't possible, especially within the context of the university
philosophy or when there is not a
developed departmental philosophy."
Student conduct systems that are
educational, holistic, and communitybased, no matter how much they may
vary from one institution to another,
focus on what is at the heart of any
work in student affairs: the student
experience. Students, both victims and
offenders, feel they have a voice and
are actually being heard; they appreciate the opportunity for dialogue and
reflection about their actions; they
learn to understand and accept their
accountability to others; and, throughout it all, they still feel part of the residential and campus community - all
while the rights of these larger communities are still being protected. As
the American Council on Educations's
seminal text The Student Personnel
Point of View emphasized so many
decades ago, ultimately the individual
is strengthened and the welfare of the
group is preserved. 

 34  CONTINUED

HAND IN GLOVE

struggling employees often contact
her about fit. "Yes, they reach out. The
conversation typically goes, 'I'm not
doing well here. Tell me ways to make
this better.'"
Institutions and departments
should continually evaluate the efforts
they make when recruiting, welcoming, developing, and retaining their
SHO. Jackson captured the sentiment
perfectly when emphasizing that fit
is a responsibility shared by both
the employer and employee. "Hiring
managers should stop using the word
fit unless they're prepared to give a
very detailed definition of what they

mean. In a sense, it's a get out jail
free card, so institutions must remain
cognizant of the shared responsibility
of employee and employer fit." 

Tom Ellett is the senior associate vice
president for student affairs and associate
vice provost for university programs at New
York University in New York.
 tom.ellett@nyu.edu
Christina Davis is the associate dean of the
Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
at Berklee College of Music in Boston,
Massachusetts.
 cdavis5@berklee.edu

https://newbuildings.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/GTZ_2016_List.pdf http://www.rethinkx.com/press-release/2017/5/3/newreport-due-to-major-transportationdisruption-95-of-us-car-miles-willbe-traveled-in-self-driving-electricshared-vehicles-by-2030 http://secondnature.org/who-we-are/network/ http://www.princetonreview.com/cms-content/cohowo-surveyreport-2017.pdf

Talking Stick - July/August 2018

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