August 3, 2005

New Purdue office to promote student responsibility

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A new division has been created in Purdue's Office of the Dean of Students that is designed to promote student responsibility and educate students about core values that carry over into the classroom and throughout their lives.

"There is a common misperception among current and former students that our office is where you go when you're in trouble," said L. Tony Hawkins, dean of students. "We hope that the new Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities will become a place that students and parents will come to value as a resource that promotes responsibility and encourages honesty, integrity and respect throughout the entire campus environment through education, compliance with behavioral standards and support of individual rights.

"We are operating on the basic premise that a civil environment is the best learning environment. This new office will serve the entire community, especially students, while they are at Purdue and throughout their lives."

The Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, located in Schleman Hall, Room B50, will have five staff members under the direction of Stephen Akers, executive associate dean of students. Akers said the office was created by reallocating staff and funds and that no new funding will be required.

Akers said the changing landscape of higher education required Purdue to think creatively about the types of services students need and how the university offers those services. In addition, those changes, along with federal regulations that have an impact on students' rights, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, require a staff that has highly specialized knowledge and intensive training on legal issues in higher education policies and procedures.

Some of the new issues affecting student behavioral and conduct concerns are related to study abroad programs, online academic integrity, e-mail usage and technology misuse. Akers said that while most university regulations address conduct only on campus property or in campus-related programs, the fact that 65 percent of the student population lives off campus also increases the number and complexity of student-related issues.

"In today's environment, we must be even more proactive than ever and focus as much attention as possible on preventing misbehavior and poor judgment," Hawkins said. "We cannot afford to sit back and react only when bad conduct comes to our attention."

Part of that proactive approach includes a renewed focus on education outreach and increasing awareness of all the services offered by the Office of the Dean of Students, Hawkins said.

"We want to create a more positive image for the Office of the Dean of Students, one that conveys the idea that we are a helping service rather than just a sanctioning office," he said. "The same notion applies to the new office. We need not apologize for the fact that it will still oversee formal disciplinary cases, but we hope to demonstrate that this is only a small part of what it does. We want to get the word out that the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities is here to address all conduct-related issues, including grade appeals, student-teacher relations, academic integrity and harassment, among many others."

Akers said that in 2004-05 the Office of the Dean of Students handled a total of 871 disciplinary cases on the West Lafayette campus involving 1,161 students out of the campus' total enrollment of 38,653. Of the 470 students that eventually faced disciplinary proceedings, 34 were either suspended or expelled from the university, while the remainder were required to serve either a disciplinary probation or probated suspension.

"While disciplinary action isn't pleasant for anyone involved in the process, it also presents an opportunity for our office to help students learn," Akers said. "It's a chance for us to connect with young people who have made mistakes and work with them to try to find the best solution. It's also a time for students to seriously evaluate their behavior as seen through the eyes of others and get their lives back on track.

"What we want to do is establish a standard of behavior for students and encourage them to meet that standard. We want the students to learn the importance of citizenship and civility, and we want them to take that knowledge with them when they graduate. Preparation for life in general is what we want to achieve."

The formal concept of a separate office for dealing with student rights, responsibilities and conduct was endorsed in a 2002 report from a task force convened by the Office of the Vice President for Student Services and composed of Purdue students, faculty and staff. Appropriate space for the new office became available this past spring.

Along with helping students who attend Purdue at its West Lafayette campus, the new office will provide assistance to students enrolled in the university's Study Abroad, College of Technology Statewide and distance-learning programs.

More information about all the services available through the Office of the Dean of Students is available online at https://www.purdue.edu/odos. The Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities can be contacted at (765) 494-1250, and the general Office of the Dean of Students can be reached at (765) 494-1747.

Writer: Brian Zink, (765) 494-2080, bzink@purdue.edu

Sources: L. Tony Hawkins, (765) 494-1239, lthawkins@purdue.edu

Stephen Akers, (765) 494-1242, sjakers@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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