Judicial Programs Assessment Activities

 The Judicial Programs Office has been involved in three primary assessment processes over the past year. Two of the processes have already been conducted: The Parental Notification Survey and The Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) Policies and Sanctions Review. The third assessment, the Judicial System Assessment, is currently underway during the 2002-2003 academic year.

The Parental Notification Survey, distributed during the summer of 2002, was designed to obtain feedback from parents regarding the letter they received after their son/daughter was found in violation of PSC’s AOD policy.  The results of the feedback showed that the majority of parents found the letter beneficial and were in favor of parental notification so we are continuing our practice.

The second assessment, the AOD Policies and Sanctions Review, was conducted during the Spring 2002 semester.  Various methods were used to obtain feedback such as conducting meetings with student focus groups, surveying residential life undergraduate staff and having discussions with residence directors and members of CHAT (PSC’s Chemical Health Advisory Task Force). Alternative alcohol sanctions were reviewed as well to compare them to our current On-Campus Talking About Alcohol (OCTAA) program.  After all information was taken into consideration it was found that PSC’s current alcohol policies and sanctions were appropriate and effective so no significant changes were made.  Students and residential life staff members, however, did express that it was difficult to understand what the AOD policies and expectations were and what the consequences would be for violations. As a result, the actual written AOD policy and contents of the Student Handbook was edited and redesigned during Summer 2002 in hopes to communicate more effectively the policies, expectations and sanctions regarding alcohol and other drugs.

The purpose of the third assessment is to evaluate the Judicial System as a whole.  This year surveys will be distributed to all students who have interacted in the Judicial System in order to obtain feedback in various areas such as; whether the student knew that his/her behavior was against University policy, whether the student was treated fairly and with respect during the process, and whether or not the process had any impact on the student’s behavior afterwards.  The information collected through this assessment will be used to determine whether any changes need to be made in the Judicial System, and if so, what those changes may need to be.