OSRR Video Final ao 25 Apr 2017

Welcome to the video on the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities. My name is Anna Mazig and I'm the Student Complaint Officer here at MCTC. A little bit of overview on what we'll cover today: What is the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities? What is the difference between the Student Complaint Officer and student Conduct Officer? What are the 3 types of reports submitted by students? What is mediation? What are the most common complaints and issues? And points of contact. First: What is the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities? Well, the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities is housed in the Student Support Center located in T 2300. We handle student rights under the student complaint process and student responsibilities under the student conduct process. What is the difference between the Student Complaint Officer and the Student Conduct Officer? I am the Student Complaint Officer, and so I manage reports by students that are either concerns, complaints or grievances. A complaint by a student in the student complaint process is against an employee either faculty, staff, or a student in their work-study capacity. The Student Conduct Officer, in contrast, processes reports about students either made by other students or employees and that could be faculty or staff members. The reports by the MCTC community against a student are in regards to a violations of the Student Code of Conduct. So, what are the three types of reports submitted by students for the student complaint process? The first is a concern. A concern ends up being more of a general heads up to a supervisor to say, "Hey, you know, I'm concerned about what it is that took place here." There is not a required meeting that happens with the employee and the supervisor as a part of that process. There also is not necessarily relief that a student is seeking. There is no investigation that's done with a concern, which is the biggest difference between a concern and a complaint. A complaint does have that investigation piece There is a required meeting that the employee has with the supervisor and there is often relief that a student is seeking as a part of a complaint report. The biggest difference between a complaint and a grievance is that a grievance is about college policy or MnSCU or Minnesota State policy and how it's applied in a particular instance. The grievance that we get most often is in regards to the last date of attendance policy. Here is a copy of our student concern, complaint and grievance form. Feel free to pause the presentation at this time and zoom in and view any details at your leisure. The most common complaint or grievance that comes through my office is in regards to employee-student communication. Often when students are feeling disrespected or slighted in some way by an employee, that creates the impetus for filing a complaint. Relatedly, if a student is filing a complaint about a course or about a faculty member, I also review the syllabus. The syllabus is viewed as a contract between a student and their instructor for the semester. And so students often will turn to the syllabus to find out what the expectations are of them for the course over the course of the semester. Notably, it's important to have a separate attendance policy from the last date of attendance policy and also to have a classroom policy on the submission of late work, which is also a requirement laid out in the MCTC College Policy 3.10: Faculty Expectations of what's required in a written syllabus. Students who file a complaint in the office are offered mediation as an option as well and many students seek mediation first and foremost before filing a complaint. So what is mediation? We offer mediation through our office. Myself and Maya are both trained mediators. And mediation here is R.O.O.T. mediation and it stands for, "Resolving Our Own Troubles." It's available on a voluntary basis. We do require that all parties be voluntary participants, but can be initiated by a student or an employee for student interaction. So student to student or student-employee group can request that mediation. Here is our mediation brochure. Feel free to pause the presentation and review the details. And here is our mediation request form. Finally our points of contact: again, my name is Anna Mazig. I am the Student Complaint Officer here at MCTC. Maya Sullivan is the Director of the Student Support Center. She is also the Director of Compliance and the Title IX Coordinator here at MCTC. And we will soon be having a Student Conduct Officer join our ranks once again. For more information, feel free to visit our website.