Students' Perceptions Of The Fairness Of Conduct And Point Systems

The purpose of this study was to understand a college's conduct and point systems in a phenomenological way, through the students' and staff's perceptions of it. Perceptions have been shown to be more influential in shaping behaviors towards and attitudes of disciplinary structures than objective and empirical evaluation. In assessing perceptions, the point and conduct systems' effectiveness can be better understood. Using survey responses from 72 college students and 3 staff interviews, the perceived fairness of the conduct system was evaluated. The results were inconclusive. It was clear that students thought that the point system could be improved in multiple areas; however, based on the data, it was not clear that they perceived the system as wholly unfair. Two prominent concerns were education, both about the system and within the system, and point value allocation to violation. To address these concerns, comprehensive education about what the conduct system is, how it works, why it is in place, and how to appropriately evaluate violations, for both students and staff, respectively, should be implemented. Although no obvious conclusions were evident, the data of this preliminary study provides valuable information about people's perspectives of the conduct system and what those attitudes mean for its mission.

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Union College (Schenectady, N.Y.). Department of Sociology