Nelda Bailey: Texas A&M University's Student Conduct Office Week Five

Activities:

1. Attended Panel Training Review
2. Observed Call In Meetings with Students
3. Observed Two Student Conferences
4. Attended Staff Meeting
5. Attended Back on TRAC Staffing
6. Reviewed Report and Began a File
7. SARC Training

Experience:

Howdy!

Well, I have officially began my practicum experience in the Student Conduct Office at Texas A&M University (TAMU), and I LOVE IT! On my first day, I toured Cain Hall with my supervisor and did a quick overview of what the office is like. I also had the chance to have one on ones with the other staff members to understand their unique role in the office. On the second day, I was given the opportunity to review the panel training materials. The panel is the hearing option for all serious, or can result in separation from TAMU, and Title IX cases. This allowed me to see all of the attention and detail needed to ensure highly trained panelists. This also gave me the chance to work with the full staff including the office’s graduate assistant. Even more, I was also afforded the chance to understand how the panel works and begin to learn other useful bits of information like TAMU’s policies and how government acts play a role in the hearings. On Thursday and Friday, I observed two student conferences and a call-in conferences. These conferences afforded me the opportunity to see how the office actually interacts with the students. These conferences also reassured my decision for a counseling-based program. I saw several counseling skills and techniques utilized by the staff such as, but not limited to, active listening, empowering the students, paraphrasing, scaling questions, and open-ended questions. Most importantly, I was able to understand the true power and results of educational sanctions over punitive sanctions for collegiate students. 

Since the conferences are usually in the middle of the process, my director gave me the opportunity to see things from the beginning. I was able to review a report as we received it, determine if it went against TAMU policy, and then process a charge letter stating our findings. This opportunity also exposed me to the State of Texas laws and the differences between TAMU’s code and the state’s law. Lastly, I was able to observe two different initiatives the office currently has in place. The first is Back On TRAC which is a program designed to help students who may be experiencing consistent issues directly related with alcohol and/or other drug use. I think this experience and program will greatly benefit my current graduate assistantship being that alcohol abuse is often related to Fraternity and Sorority Life. The other initiatives was a training session conduct by our office for the Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC) advocates. This training showed me the importance of community relations. Our office was able to come in and show the difference between TAMU’s code and the State of Texas’s law, show ways of reporting, and explain the various resources employed by our office. TAMU prides itself on its ability to develop a community feeling for its students, and I enjoyed seeing how the office worked to keep this feeling steady and growing.

I also feel as if this week’s reading related a lot to my experiences at my practicum site. Chapter Six focus is on networking and making connections. Being from Louisiana and attending Mississippi State, I had no connection other than my director when I started this experience. Throughout my first week, my director made several introductions for me around TAMU’s campus. These connections included but not limited to, the ACSA regional director, Dean of Student Life who also helped me land this practicum, and the Back On TRAC staff. The family of TAMU also taught me the importance of making strong connections as I observe how they interact on a daily basis. They are always funny stories passed between colleagues, status updates on family, and the everyday “How’s it going?” question. I have also had the opportunity to expand my connections from my director. Before I leave TAMU, I will get to meet and greet with other staff members to understand more insight into their student affairs journey, the profession, and TAMU. As a whole, this process has been teaching me what I desire and cannot tolerate in a working environment, city, and institution. Hopefully, I can elaborate more on this topic next week. So far, a sense of community, autonomy, and Starbucks are all very high contenders.  I will keep you guys updated. During my walk through the Memorial Student Center, I ran across this interesting wooden display of art that focuses in on Student Life as a whole at TAMU.