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Responding to Other Conduct of Concern

The plan put forth by the º£½ÇÉçÇø Channel Islands Implementation Team addresses behavior that may not necessarily fall under protected status of discrimination or harassment but could still disrupt the learning, living, or working environment and violate other University policies as outlined on the º£½ÇÉçÇø Channel Islands Cozen O’Connor report page 32. The initial phase entails creating a set of communal agreements that establishes expectations for how members of the º£½ÇÉçÇø Channel Islands community should treat one another. Additionally, the development of conflict resolution mechanisms, restorative approaches for remedial actions regarding culture and climate, targeted prevention and education programming, and ongoing management of issues of concern will be focused on.

Tasks

1. In conjunction with the Chancellor’s Office and º£½ÇÉçÇø’s Office of General Counsel, develop a written policy, document, or statement by senior leadership to establish expectations, guidelines, and/or definitions of conduct.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 1/15/2025
    • Notes: Per CO direction, we are awaiting further guidance on Other Conduct of Concern, though a working group was convened in Summer 2024 by the Chief of Staff with the stakeholder offices listed above to begin working on this statement (which we believe must address not only intersections with free speech and academic freedom, but also with policy), which must include the explicit recognition that the º£½ÇÉçÇø cannot discipline protected speech. Given that legal explanations for free speech do not adequately address the needs of those who are most adversely impacted by said free speech (e.g., a student with concerns about potential discrimination/retaliation from a professor who posts what the students perceives to be hateful/discriminatory speech on personal social media), how can an OCC statement ensure appropriate support? This is where the need for guidance lies; we are hopeful that information from the CO will provide uniform support for all campuses in the system.

2. Reinforce º£½ÇÉçÇø values and expectations about respect, tolerance, and professionalism through programming and opportunities for in-person engagement.

 

Ongoing

  • Priority Level: N/A
    Anticipated Project Completion: 1/15/2025
    Notes: See previous comments about data collection on interventions addressing this point. We will ensure we are devoting resources towards interventions that result in increased engagement and desired outcomes. Additionally, within º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s Addendum to the new systemwide Time, Place, and Manner Policy submitted in August 2024, we have detailed an education plan, to be led by our VPSA, º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s Designated University Official, with the following goals in mind. Each goal is further defined in our TPM Addendum with anticipated learning outcomes and programming/activity ideas:

    • Equip students with knowledge of free speech rights and responsibilities within the academic environment.
    • Enhance faculty understanding of academic freedom and its relationship with free speech.
    • Provide staff with the tools to support free speech while ensuring a safe and respectful campus.
    • Equip administrators with the knowledge and skills to support free speech, academic freedom, and campus safety.
    • Inform members of the public about the University’s commitment to free speech, how the First Amendment intersects with Academic Freedom, and University policies governing the exercise of First Amendment rights on campus.

3. Strengthen and expand available competencies regarding conflict resolution, navigating interpersonal conflict, restorative justice, and other forms of remedial responses.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 1/15/2025
    • Notes: The reinforcing of values and provision of in-person engagement opportunities described in response to Task 2, above, is relevant to our response to Task 3. These learning opportunities will include educational programming on conflict resolution, navigating interpersonal conflict, and restorative justice. Additionally, we will explore and identify learning opportunities provided by offices/units other than Title IX, HR, Faculty Affairs, and Student Conduct, such as through º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s Teaching & Learning Innovations (TLi) and Systemwide Learning and Development (º£½ÇÉçÇø Learn). Asynchronous learning materials will be posted to the OCC website that we anticipate launching by 1/15/2025.

3-1. Strengthen traditional employee relations functions within human resources to assist in responding to concerns involving faculty and staff.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 1/15/2025
    • Notes: We anticipate that improved reporting and tracking mechanisms for OCC will result in at least an initial uptick in reports made, which will have staffing implications for our HR team, as well as for FASE and Student Conduct. We will therefore be using the OCC Team convened in Summer 2024 as a mutual support system for navigating OCC, providing support across units (i.e., HR, FASE, Student Conduct, Title IX) as we work to improve communication, timeliness, and responsiveness, and tracking of OCC at º£½ÇÉçÇøCI.

3-2. Strengthen competencies of managers, supervisors, deans and department chairs by providing expanded training and professional development to meet the needs of assigned roles.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: N/A
    • Notes: See previous comments related to professional development in relation to specific constituent groups. Enhanced training will be essential. We look forward to seeing what we can do to support/augment training developed by CO. As noted above, the OCC Team convened in Summer 2024 will meet regularly to provide support across units as we work to strengthen competencies of managers, supervisors, deans, and department chairs charged with responding to OCC.

3-3.Consider the need for additional personnel, such as an Ombuds or a conflict resolution professional, including those with expertise in restorative justice and mediation.

 

Completed

    • Priority Level: N/A
    • Anticipated Project Completion: N/A
    • Notes: We opened an Ombuds office at º£½ÇÉçÇøCI in 2019. Unfortunately, given the enrollment and budgetary challenges we are facing, difficult decisions about the allocation of precious resources are necessary. The ROI for campus climate created through generation of traffic to the Ombuds office was insufficient to justify continued provision of this service. Fortunately, º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s new Executive Director of Title IX and DHR Administrator (a member of the OCC Team convened in Sum24) brings deep skills as a restorative justice coordinator, facilitator of structured conversations, and restorative justice/mediator who can lead parties involved in OCC complaints in creating agreements and finding resolutions.

3-4. Develop communications competencies to embrace the tension of difficult issues including the intersections of speech in the contexts of politically and socially-charged events and issues.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: N/A
    • Anticipated Project Completion: N/A
    • Notes: See above comments on the intersection of free speech, academic freedom, and policy, the provision of educational programming and activities, and º£½ÇÉçÇøCI’s Time, Place, and Manner Addendum detailing such programming for students, faculty, staff, administrators, and non-affiliates.

3-5. Communicate the new and available conflict resolution suite of resources through web content, annual training, and awareness campaigns.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 1/15/2025
    • Notes: The Title IX Implementation Team will collaborate with the OCC Team to evaluate and deliver effective messaging around resources as they are developed (e.g., OCCwebsite, educational programming and activities provided by HR, FASE, Student Conduct, Title IX, and other relevant campus service providers).

3-6. Invest in education and training about conflict resolution.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 1/15/2025
    • Notes: The Other Conduct of Concern Committee (OCC) will work to identify virtual workshop opportunities to enhance the community’s conflict resolution skills.

4. Create a centralized reporting mechanism that includes online and anonymous reporting options.

 

Completed

    • Priority Level: 2
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 12/20/2024
    • Notes: Will utilize existing Maxient reporting form that will allow for anonymous reporting.

4.1 Ensure that the landing page for the anonymous reporting option includes appropriate caveats about the university's limited ability to respond to an anonymous report.

 

Completed

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 12/20/2024
    • Notes: Will utilize existing Maxient reporting form that will allow for anonymous reporting.

5. Build a triage model/review process to ensure that all reports are assessed by Title IX and DHR professionals (and a subset of the Title IX/DHR MDT) and evaluate potential avenues for resolution.

 

Completed

    • Priority Level: 1
    • Anticipated Project Completion: 12/15/2025
    • Notes: The MDT-BIT and CARE teams convene when appropriate regarding these cases. The Title IX & Inclusion office confers with Conduct, OGC, and HR as cases come up and refer accordingly.

6. The reporting and resolution processes must ensure sufficient documentation system to track responsiveness, patterns, and trends.

 

Completed

    • Priority Level: N/A
    • Anticipated Project Completion: N/A
    • Notes: ED-TIX will meet on a biweekly basis with General Counsel and CO TIX Liaison, with Chief of Staff brought in as needed for institutional questions/issues. We are creating an investigation report template and getting this template approved by the CO office to ensure consistency in writing and deliverables to parties.

7. This information should be tracked and analyzed on an annual basis at minimum to inform the need for remedial actions regarding culture and climate, targeted prevention and education programming, and ongoing issues of concern.

 

Ongoing

    • Priority Level: N/A
    • Anticipated Project Completion: N/A
    • Notes: This data will become available as we have a new annual reporting mechanism through the CO. There are also reports/filters available in Maxient for data collection to base cases on age/graduating class/major, etc.
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