UPDATED: May 8, 10:17 p.m.

The Office of Judicial Affairs will change its name to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities effective July 1.

The name change is to remove associations between the Office of Judicial Affairs and the court system, according to a Monday SU News release. Despite the office’s efforts to counteract these associations, a legal connotation persists.

“Very often, people get confused and think the office is a court or a legal entity,” said Pam Peter, interim director of the Office of Judicial Affairs.

The decision is also part of a “national trend”  in which offices that manage violations of student conduct are moving away from legal-sounding language, she said.

In order to decide the new name, the office conducted focus groups that included students from the Student Association, the University Judicial Board and the Residence Hall Association, Peter said.

Students in the focus groups were surveyed on how they perceived the office and their opinions on the Office of Judicial Affairs’ current name, she said. The office also presented the focus groups with names of similar offices in other schools and asked the students what they associated with those names.

The final decision, Peter said, was a compilation of multiple suggestions.

The change reflects the office’s mission of helping students understand the behavior behind their violations, Peter said. When students come into the office, the counselors try to work with them to form agreements about what the sanctions should be, she said. Cases that are unable to reach this resolution go to the Judicial Board, where students have an opportunity to appeal.

“The process is more student-focused,” Peter said. “We are here to help them.”

She added that the court system, meanwhile, does not use the same collaborative approach.

The change highlights the importance of students’ rights and responsibilities during their time at SU, said Thomas Wolfe, senior vice president and dean of Student Affairs in the release.

Said Wolfe: “The new name accurately positions students at the heart of the office, which serves to care for students in their development as responsible campus community members, as well as people.”

 

 

 

Published on May 7, 2013 at 4:43 pm

Contact Natsumi: najisaka@syr.edu