AA 2015-04

POLICY:

The Academic Senate of California State University, Dominguez Hills (ASCSUDH) will elect bi-annually a faculty member to serve a two-year term as Faculty Advocate in cases of disruptive or threatening student behavior reported to and/or adjudicated by the Office of Student Affairs.

The Faculty Advocate will:

• Represent and advise any and all faculty who have filed a “Request for Disciplinary Action Form” or its equivalent or any and all faculty whose safety has been compromised by a student or students in violation of the Standards of Student Conduct as outlined in Title 5, Article 2, Section 41301.
• Be an ex officio member of any body charged with determining the disciplinary action taken by the university to ensure that the complainants’ concerns are clearly voiced and faculty safety considered in any action taken.
• Ensure that faculty members who, in conjunction with their department chairs, request disciplinary action against a student or students or faculty otherwise involved or named in such an action are informed in a timely and transparent manner of the outcome of the adjudication and about any protective services available to them.
• Promote faculty awareness of the services provided by the Student Affairs Office, Student Psychological Services, and University Police in cases of disruptive or threatening student behavior.
• Inform complainant faculty and/or Department Chairs of each step of the process, as well as the outcome of the actions.
• Provide resources, workshops and other education for faculty on how to respond to threatening behavior including making faculty aware of their services, widely distributing the guide “Responding to Disruptive or Threatening Student Behavior: A Guide for Faculty and Staff.”

Rationale: Ensuring faculty safety is a complex issue that intersects several administrative areas. Classroom faculty interact intensively with students, and most of those interactions are not problematic. However, on occasion, faculty are faced with disruptive student behaviors that rise to a level requiring disciplinary action be taken by the university. Such behaviors are described in Title 5, Article 2, Section 41301. On our campus website, those standards may be found at http://www4.mng-cz.com/student-rights/student-conduct-procedures/student-code-of-conduct.

The Student Affairs (SA) Office is committed to ensuring the rights of all students as well as disciplining students who break the student code of conduct. At CSUDH, the judicial office is in the office of the Dean of Student Affairs (SA), and the Judicial Officer is the Associate Dean of SA. In EO 1098 (http://www.calstate.edu/eo/EO-1098.html), the Office of the Chancellor (CO) of the California State University prescribes the disciplinary process and the types of disciplinary action that can be taken by judicial officers on any campus. The CO has also issued EO 1095, relating to the implementation of Title IX, the Campus Save Act (http://www.calstate.edu/eo/EO-1095.html). For Title IX, Hearing Officers are drawn from among Academic Affairs administrative personnel and trained for that responsibility.

Communication among the campus personnel involved in cases of disruptive and threatening student behavior is critical to campus safety. Input to adjudicating bodies by complainant faculty, by faculty named as a part of such disciplinary actions, and/or by department chairs (whether of involved faculty or the student being disciplined) is limited. Faculty and department chairs may not know the limitations placed on SA by the CO. The resolution and disciplinary action taken in disciplinary hearings may not be communicated adequately to all faculty named in an action. Having a faculty representative present in both the consultative and adjudicative processes performed by the Office of Student Affairs will give voice to the concerns of classroom faculty and department chairs as well as provide an avenue of informed reportage back to concerned faculty during the process and when disciplinary action is taken.

The election of a Faculty Advocate is part of a larger effort to better educate faculty and make clear how to respond to students who are disruptive and/or threatening. Under review now is a document tentatively titled “Responding to Disruptive or Threatening Student Behavior: A Guide for Faculty and Staff” for use on our campus. The Office of Faculty Affairs is looking into training opportunities for faculty in general and department chairs in particular and is revising the Faculty Handbook to include easy access to the complaint process. The ASCSUDH Faculty Policy Committee is recommending additional actions, including statements on student behavior to be included in syllabi.