With 'Restorative Justice,' Colleges Strive to Educate Student Offenders

Student-conduct administrators around the country are hailing restorative justice as the next big thing. A blend of mediation and restitution, it seeks to resolve a conflict by identifying the harms caused and devising, with suggestions from both victims and offenders, an agreement to repair them. Restorative justice not only offers an alternative to the legalistic conduct systems colleges now shun; it also resonates with so many mission statements about personal growth and community. In the past few years, a smattering of institutions--including Clemson University, Guilford College, and Michigan State University--have adopted restorative justice to varying degrees. At the University of Michigan, conduct officers are now diverting some students' cases from traditional hearings to restorative conferences. Elsewhere, a conference is a possible sanction after a hearing, or a condition for returning from a suspension. Even without formal programs, some conduct offices are applying the principles of restorative justice, more deliberately challenging students to consider the impacts of their behavior. Concerns crop up, usually that restorative justice squashes students' due-process rights or goes too easy on them. The process is voluntary for students who have claimed responsibility for misconduct. And compared with traditional sanctions, the custom agreements reached through restorative conferences result in "longer, meatier lists of consequences"--and fewer repeat offenders. [Condensed, with permission, from The Chronicle of Higher Education. See EJ838843 for full article.]