The primary purpose of our residence discipline process is to educate students about their actions and responsibilities, protect the residence community from conduct violations, and maintain an environment conducive to learning.

Consistent with that purpose, efforts are made to foster the personal and social development of those students who are held accountable for violations of the Residents' Understandings. The discipline system is designed to promote self-discipline and the capacity to respect the rights of others. An emphasis is placed on educational sanctions as opposed to punitive measures.

Our residence behaviour management model is guided by the principle of progressive discipline. Under this principle, Housing's response to misconduct must contribute to the personal development of the student, who will be held accountable for his or her actions and given a second opportunity to demonstrate good character after a single minor violation, and who, in the event of additional violations, will receive more serious sanctions.

Our longer-term goal is educating and developing socially conscious citizens to active and dedicated lives as leaders in their professions and their communities. We continue to revise our progressive discipline process with a view toward strengthening opportunities for educational sanctions. They are designed to help facilitate an understanding of the community standards and the policies and procedures upon which the Residents' Understandings are based. They include but are not limited to:

• creating an educational program for the community
• writing a reflection paper describing what the student has learned
• completing a research assignment
• participating in a specific program, e.g. anger management or misuse of alcohol
• meeting with campus partners (e.g. Student Development Centre, Equity and Human Rights and/or Campus Community Police Services)

We continue to receive positive feedback from students, their parents and residence staff about this approach.