Mission
The Office of Community Standards functions within the Department of Student Affairs. It's mission is responsible for responding to reports regarding alleged academic misconduct and behavioral violations. The mission is to engage students in educational conversations and effectively enforce CUNY policies. It is the responsibility of the office to advocate for all students, protect their rights, aid in their well-being, and support their educational goals while furthering the College’s mission, values, and objectives.
In order to accomplish its mission, the office has adopted Taylor and Varner’s (2009) approach to conduct management. The approach calls for:
- A management program that is infused with conflict resolution pathways that meets institution’s needs and is educationally based
- The establishment of a climate where each individual is respected and individuals also accept their obligation to the community
- Moving away from strict adherence to rules to the well-developed theories of moral, ethical, and psychosocial development to lay down the foundation for the development of young adults who are learning to internalize the values of integrity, judgment, compassion, personal responsibility, accountability and respect
- The office conflict incidents to offer an issue that often represents the crisis of disequilibrium required to affect change
- Viewing student conflict resolution and management not as an end in itself, but as a tool for affecting student growth and development to prepare student as productive, knowledge-generation, and humane citizen of the world
This model has been adopted by the Office of Community Standards because it is congruent with the theoretical framework that guides our work- specifically, Constructivism as presented by Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner and Feuerstein.
Additional Links for The Office of Community Standards
CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity (PDF - CUNY website)
