Testing the delicate balance between student privacy and the opportunity to help out students in need, the Committee on Standards enacted the Judicial Resource Network, a peer resource program that allows students brought before COS to contact students who have gone through the process as a defendant or who have served on the COS board. The program was initiated based on Student Assembly suggestions to the COS last winter.
Many students who have gone through the process before the program was enacted have expressed a willingness to participate, Director of Undergraduate Judicial Affairs April Thompson said.
According to many students involved in the program, their readiness to forego anonymity in order to join has been sparked by the sense of frustration they felt going through the process unassisted.
"It's probably the most daunting process I've ever been through, and as rough as it is, it makes it that much harder being alone," David Chattman '08 said of his own experiences with COS.
Chattman said that he does not believe a peer resource would change the verdict in a student's case, but that a peer resource would be able to "calm you down."
One student, however, said that a peer resource would have helped him avoid his four-term suspension for an academic honor principle violation. This student attests that the dean who offered him assistance held him back when he should have gone out of his way to prove his innocence when evidence he believed worked in his favor was misconstrued as evidence for his violation.
"I was about to say, 'You have to see that what [my professor] is saying isn't true, what I'm saying is true.' It probably wouldn't have come out right, but at least I could have spoken up for myself," he said.
The dean told him to be quiet, he said, so he did not point out evidence that he felt may have changed the verdict.
Many of the students who have agreed to act as peer resources did so because they felt their own experiences with COS to be negative. While Thompson stands on the receiving end of many of these criticisms because she is in charge of COS, she acknowledged that the process can be tough on students and that she wants to offer as much support as possible.
"[UJA] wants students to feel supported in this process, and a dean, an administrator or a member of the faculty may need help supporting a student. Peer support is very valuable," Thompson said.
Given the opportunity to offer peer support, Chris Green '06 said he wants to focus on calming students about the possible outcomes of their COS hearings.
"When you first get the letter in the mail ... it jolts your system," Green said. "I wanted to help just from the mental aspect of how to deal with the possibility of getting kicked out of school ... I dealt with the worst that could possibly happen and learned it was not the end of the world."
Thompson compiles a list of possible resources on a term-by-term basis and sends BlitzMail messages to students who have recently returned from a separation with the College and therefore have not been previously asked to be a resource.
She said she tries to give accused students interested in contacting a peer resource a list of names that includes at least one former COS member, one student convicted of a violation, and one student who was found innocent.
Thompson believes that students found guilty of a violation learn from the experience and therefore are able to offer positive support.
"We value the educational experience that comes out of the disciplinary process and my hope is that students who have gone through it have learned something ... that they're willing to share with other people," Thompson said. "Students learn from their mistakes and come back and engage in the community in a better way than they ever did before."
Because of the concerns for student privacy, Thompson must initially send a blitz to students to ask if they would like to participate in the program. When an accused student expresses interest in a peer resource, Thompson double checks with a potential peer advisor to make sure that she can give the accused student his or her name.
"I think concerns for privacy tend to sometimes make things very slow because I won't give any name out or release any information about someone without double and triple checking with that person, so sometimes it takes a longer time than I would like," Thompson said.
So far Thompson knows of at least two students who have contacted peer resources and followed up, although Thompson separates herself from the dialogue beyond that point.
"I don't ask any questions about the content of their conversation -- I want that to be a personal relationship between students. I don't give the peer resource people any agenda or guidelines; I ask that they share their experience. I don't try to manage that process because I want it to be open and honest," Thompson said.
