Conduct, process, policies, and expectations
Our educational philosophy
The mission of Campus Living is to create a welcoming and vibrant campus living experience where students connect, explore, and belong. This mission remains the focus of our department’s work in the area of student conduct. We know that college is a time of transition and uncertainty; just like the rest of us, college students sometimes make mistakes. The student conduct process is a means of enforcing positive community standards to foster personal growth and success. Our intention is to educate and develop students, not to punish them for their mistakes.
Our student conduct philosophy centers on three goals:
- The student conduct process should be fair and transparent.
- The student conduct process should be educational.
- The student conduct process should be community-focused.
You can read more about each of the three goals below.
Fair and transparent Accordion Closed
We strive to make the conduct process fair and equitable for all of our students—no matter their personal background or what policies they may have broken. To this end, our student conduct, staff, policies, and processes do not discriminate on the basis of physical/mental ability, age, ethnicity, gender, national origin, political affiliation, physical appearance, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or veteran status.
Our policies in the Student Code of Conduct and Campus Living Community Policies apply to all students and residents. As adults entering into a contract, student residents are expected to read and abide by all published policies. As staff focused on the personal development of students, we work hard to communicate proactively and explain thoroughly the content and purpose of our policies.
This website contains many resources and a lot of information for students and families. Making our goals and processes public is one way we strive to be transparent. Finally, we seek to be fair and transparent in providing each student with their full range of rights in the student conduct process.
Educational Accordion Closed
The point of college is to learn—and to channel learning into a degree! Learning from our mistakes can prove to be some of our most powerful life lessons. A conduct meeting is an opportunity for students to reflect on whether their actions relate to the goals they have for their time at NAU and beyond. For example, let’s say a student’s goal is to graduate from NAU and ultimately become a lawyer. How does drinking excessively and missing class due to a hangover help them achieve that goal? It likely does not.
Our conversations during conduct meetings focus on strategies for the future in order to help students meet their goals for themselves. If a student realizes that their choices and goals do not align, we discuss some next steps to get back on track. The emphasis is on developing the student as an adult and as an upstanding citizen in society. The central question, always, is: “How do my choices impact myself and others in the NAU community?”
If a student is found to have violated a university policy, they will likely be assigned sanctions. These sanctions are a continuation of our educational conduct process. Sanctions may involve some follow-up on the student’s part to further personal reflection, get involved on campus, or to restore harm done to others in the community. We try our best to tailor sanctions to the individual student based on the goals and discussion we share in a conduct hearing.
Community-focused Accordion Closed
Living in a living community or college apartment community can be a new experience for students. It is often quite different from students’ living environments at home. There may be different expectations for behavior, partly because there are so many people sharing a common living space.
All of the Campus Living Community Policies (and the NAU Code of Conduct) are based on four principles, called the Compelling Community Interests, which seek to find a balance between the individual rights of students and the responsibility to a greater community. They are Health and Safety, Property Loss or Damage, Disruption of the Educational Living Environment, and Legitimate Educational Purpose.
Health and safety
The health and safety of students is of utmost importance to NAU and to Campus Living. Many of the policies are meant to protect the emotional, physical, and mental health and safety of students and residents. As such, there is a need to limit certain individual rights in order to safeguard the health and safety of the community.
Property loss or damage
NAU’s campus has a relatively low rate of serious crime. However, no community can completely eliminate the risk of property loss or damage. Every member of our community shares the responsibility to care for and protect both community and personal property.
Serious disruption of the educational living environment
As student residents of NAU, we are a community of scholars. For us to live together successfully, we must respect the needs and rights of our fellow scholars. Everything that we do directly or indirectly relates to our academic and personal success, so we must always maintain a living environment conducive to pursuing this success. It is important to remember that we are responsible for our own behavior and for the behavior of our guests, as both may impact the communal living environment.
Legitimate educational purpose
The vast majority of students at NAU would say they came here to earn a degree and graduate. This is the foundation and premise of the university and of Campus Living. Any behavior or actions that do not contribute to accomplishing this goal therefore go against the educational goals of NAU and Campus Living. As such, we have policies, programs, and processes that seek to promote our educational purpose.