USD Restorative Justice Manual 19
STUDENT DEVELOPMENT Restorative justice is particularly relevant for the goals of student development and the campus community for three reasons. 1.
Gen Z: Our current generation of students tend to have a strong connectedness largely attributed to online interactions, global exposure, and desire for community. Restorative justice, with its focus on community engagement, is able to tap into the communitarian impulse of our students in a unique way.
2.
Privilege, Social Justice, and Power: A central value to our campus community is the focus on diversity and inclusion and our goal should be to create practices that assist in the formation of a welcoming environment that supports authentic dialogue and relationships. Restorative justice helps fill this important need by engaging diverse community members is conversations that are generative and constructive.
3.
Goal of Campus Conduct Programs: Traditional conduct processes tend to lean more towards punishment and retribution while muting the voice of those who are impacted by behavior. The focus of any restorative approach is emphasizing the education and development of all those involved for authentic reconciliation and reintegration for community members.
Although there is some overlap between Model Code and Restorative Justice processes, there are significant differences that help to emphasize different learning and development goals. The Model Code process is best suited for incidents that are adversarial or where the student is denying responsibility. The restorative process is better suited for incidents where the offending student takes responsibility for their behavior and expresses a degree of remorse for the impact they have had. The Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) identifies several goals for student development. Connections between these goals and the goals associated with Restorative Justice include the following: Student Development Goals
Restorative Justice Goals
Leadership
Active Accountability
Ethical Development
Repairing Harm
Interpersonal Competence
Interdependence
Cognitive Complexity
Reflective Thinking
Communicating Effectively
Building Community
