The University of Colorado at Boulder is the first university in the nation experimenting with an innovative campus program offering students who get in trouble a chance to fess up and face the consequences of their acts to avoid going through the usual university judicial system.
Formed using principles of Restorative Justice, an increasingly popular method used as an alternative to judicial processes, CU-Boulder聮s program centers around "group conferences," which bring offenders together with those they have harmed.
During these voluntary conferences where offending students have already admitted to wrongdoing, groups focus on identifying the harm to people, relationships and property. Once that聮s done, they concentrate on repairing the harm and helping the offending students make better future choices.
"The criminal justice system must determine whether an accused person is guilty and sanction him or her if found guilty," said Tom Sebok, director of CU-Boulder聮s ombuds office, and a facilitator in the university聮s Restorative Justice program. "But most sanctions do not repair the harm done to the people affected by offenders聮 actions.
"Our program has the advantage of not having to determine whether an offense occurred. When students accused of violating our student code of conduct admit to wrongdoing, we have an opportunity to respond in a way that is educational rather than punitive."
Taking responsibility for one聮s actions is important for both the harmed party and the offender, because once that is done, the healing process can move forward, said Andrea Goldblum, director of judicial affairs at CU-Boulder.
"Even if I decide it is a good fit, it all boils down to the accused acknowledging responsibility for their acts," Goldblum said. "The whole process is voluntary for those harmed by the offender and the offender, so they both have to agree to do it."
In the end, the "group conferences" result in agreements focusing on repairing harm and educating offending students.
"Our approach allows offending students an opportunity they normally don聮t receive in judicial or administrative processes -- the opportunity to repair the harm they聮ve done," Sebok said. "And at the same time, they have an opportunity to learn from it."
Communities across the nation have begun embracing Restorative Justice, because for many kinds of violations -- especially with juvenile offenders -- it offers advantages over the traditional criminal justice system, according to Sebok.
"Usually when people are accused of crimes, they don聮t really have to speak face-to-face with people they聮ve harmed, or to the community affected by their wrongdoing," Sebok said. "A lawyer does the talking for them, and a jury or a judge decides the best punishment for the crime. Restorative Justice, however, allows the community to make these choices."
CU-Boulder聮s Restorative Justice program is just in its infancy, with only eight cases under its belt, but there are high hopes for the program聮s future, according to Goldblum.
"A university campus like CU is a great fit for a program like this because it is a well-defined community with a diverse population," Goldblum said. "It also has support systems like counseling services, drug and anger management programs and health centers available for students to use, which are all important for the healing process.
"Hopefully, the students who go through the process learn more from this experience than they would have through other disciplinary actions," she said.
The whole process requires many hours of work outside his normal job, Sebok said. But he believes the program is worth the extra work.
"Restorative justice is not just a conference circle," he said. "It聮s a philosophy of how justice may be done."