Reframing Campus Conflict: Student Conduct Practice Through the Lens of Inclusive Excellence (Tales of the Dairy Godmother)

This fully revised and updated second edition builds upon the original vision of the first, which was to give voice to diverse and inclusive perspectives, identities, and practices and to enact the principle that student conduct and conflict response must be based upon foundations of social justice and restorative justice to disrupt and transform overly legalistic and escalated management applications in student conduct administration. The Spectrum Model (Schrage & Thompson, 2008) approach centers advocacy for inclusive conflict excellence by expanding traditional adjudication pathways to include dialogue, conflict coaching, mediation, restorative practices, and shuttle diplomacy for a more robust and inclusive expression of conflict and conduct practices.  

In the intervening decade, this co-edited work has become more relevant than ever as colleges and universities continue to be the targets of litigation, activists, lawmakers and public officials who have, for instance, changed the Title IX rules for responding to sexual misconduct. Civility, hate crimes, activism, immigration, nationalism, and free speech are all again on the forefront of challenges impacting the current campus climate.

New chapters cover these and other issues including the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic response and impact on equity and justice in higher education, and amplified calls for racial justice and police reform. The book is further enhanced by chapter case studies, summaries and questions for dialogue, to encourage further reflection by the reader and bolster the usefulness of the work as a textbook and campus training guide.

The second edition is a must-have resource for broad stakeholders invested in inclusive conflict excellence and principled leadership in education in the midst of a shifting and increasingly polarized landscape. This includes legal counsel, higher education presidents, senior student affairs administrators and faculty leadership as well as student conduct practitioners across conduct boards, hearing and appeal officers, residential and organizational staff engaged in student facing campus climate work. Reframing Campus Conflict further offers transferable content that supports inclusive conflict excellence inquiry and application in graduate programs, K-12, special education and human resource management practices. This book is for all educators, administrators, practitioners and leaders committed to engaging campus conflict work through the inclusive lenses of social, restorative, transformative and procedural justice.

This is also available as a set with Student Conduct Practice, Second Edition.

Nancy Geist Giacomini (she/her) is a groundbreaking educator, mediator, andsystems consultant whose teaching, publications and advocacy have transformed studentconduct and conflict management practice for over three decades. She provides onlineadjunct graduate instruction, subject matter expertise and doctoral candidatementoring for institutions including St. Bonaventure University (NY) and SullivanUniversity (KY) and is a veteran mediator of special education disputes withthe Pennsylvania Office for Dispute Resolution. She earned her doctorate in educationalleadership from the University of Delaware while a conflict resolution program associatein the Institute for Public Administration, where she served as a statewidemediator, and graduate practicum instructor for student affairs practice in highereducation. Her career includes over a decade as assistant dean of students atthe University of Delaware where she managed the Student Conduct office; pilotedthe Student Government Mediation program; chaired the Appeals Board, Councilfor Judicial Affairs, and Sexual Assault Awareness Weeks; and was awarded theInstitutional Award for Women’s Equity. Giacomini champions integrated conflictand conduct management initiatives in education. She balances an activeconflict management and teaching practice with educational consulting, conflictcoaching, and interim student affairs roles in higher education, including anappointment as interim student conduct and Title IX respondent case manager andgrievance advisor for Swarthmore College (PA). She is a credentialed expert acrossconflict coaching; group facilitation; mediation; restorative practices; victim-offenderconference facilitation; due process; Title IX; and ombudsperson roles.Giacomini is an award-winning leader in the Association for Student ConductAdministration (ASCA) with Board of Director roles culminating in a three-yearturn as president. She pioneered the integration of conflict resolution,mediation, restorative justice, and inclusive excellence principles andpractices into traditional student conduct professional development programsoffered by the association in roles as conference chair, training instituteprogram chair, and faculty. Nancy founded the Community of Practice for Womenin Student Conduct, served on the ASCA Foundation Board, was appointed to the DiversityTask Force, and lent expertise at the inaugural Conflict Resolution StrategicPlanning Summit. Additional memberships include the International OmbudsmanAssociation, Association for Conflict Resolution, Pennsylvania Council ofMediators, ACPA College Student Educators International, and the Pennsylvania ODRStakeholder’s Council; she is also on the editorial board of the Journal ofConflict Management (JOCM).