In this episode of Roompact’s RA*Chat, Learn how to address conflict with confidence and compassion while building genuine accountability on your floor. Turn those policy violation moments into opportunities for growth! It’s time to stop being scared and start being the community leader your residents need. Join us on Roompact as Kaitlyn Charette, a coordinator at Johns Hopkins University, gives us the best tips and tricks for RAs to address policy violations on their floor.
Guest: Kaitlyn “KC” Charette (she/her/hers), Coordinator in the Office of Student Conduct, The Johns Hopkins University
Host: Anthony Martinez
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Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Anthony Martinez:
Welcome back everybody to Roompact’s podcast, ResEdChat. Today is a special RA Chat edition that we have for you where we are talking about issues of importance to RAs and student staff members in housing and Residence Life. I’m your host, Anthony Martinez. I use he/him pronouns. And today we’re diving into a topic that every RA will encounter and needs to master, handling policy violations with grace. Let’s be real, nobody becomes an RA because they’re excited about writing incident reports or confronting residents about different violations. But here’s the thing is that we will have to handle those situations and it doesn’t just affect our policy compliance, it also affects our relationships. Your residents need to trust you and your entire floor also wants to trust you. It’s important that we do it right and maintain those crucial connections while keeping everybody safe. And today I have a very special guest with me, Kaitlyn, who has extensive housing experience and experience within this area of handling policy violations as they’ve seen policy violations from many different angles. And so Kaitlyn, if you would like to introduce yourself.
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Absolutely, yes. Thank you for having me, Anthony. My name is Kaitlyn Charette or I go by KC. Kaitlyn’s, perfectly fine. I use she/her/hers pronouns. I’m currently a coordinator in the Office of Student Conduct at Johns Hopkins University, but I’ve had a plethora of experiences at other universities, some in Residence Life with Anthony himself, and then switched over to conduct. So I’ve been in conduct about three years professionally. And so originally from Michigan, have hopped around quite a bit, but I’m so happy to be here and talk about all things policy violations.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, I’m excited. I’m excited to see you again. And we’re just going to get right into it with one of the bigger topics that we see that RAs get fearful of, which is they’ve begun to build relationships with their students. It’s the beginning of the year and then they catch them violating policy. And so for all the RAs listening, that’s something you may be dreading right now is realizing that your residents, some of them will violate policy. And so from your experience in these situations, how do you think RAs should go about balancing their role as a supportive community member and their responsibility to enforce the policy?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Yeah, absolutely. And I want to start off by kind of challenging, I think a lot of RA’s thoughts on this. I think that holding somebody accountable is being a supportive community member. That’s the whole role of being an RA is that you’re helping students be kind of well-rounded in learning this college experience. And so viewing, holding somebody accountable and policy violations and enforcing those rules as opposition to being a supportive measure really does a detriment because we get in those situations where the student will pick up and your peers and your residents will pick up on your emotions.
So if you’re going into a policy violation going, “Oh, this might hurt our relationship.” Even if you don’t say those words, that student’s going to pick it up and just kind of feel the same thing. So when we’re having these situations know that they’re a building ground for being a supportive person, they’re there to help you be like, “Yes, I’m going to put on these programs, I’m going to listen to if you come to me with concerns and I’m going to hold you accountable.” And all those things together, make an RA a supportive community member for their residents.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, I love that. I love that you talk about an accountability portion here. I think that’s so important, especially in addressing your experience.
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Absolutely. And this is because a conduct person, I always say there’s conduct brain with it, but these conflict situations are super hard but so impactful. Especially in my experience of being when I was in Residence Life, even as an RA myself, I think back to some of the most impactful times I’ve had where I’ve built connections with peers at the time or then as a professional with students and connections I still hold professionally to this day are students that I had to be like, “Hey, let’s talk about this. This is a policy violation.” Or as a professional staff member to my RAs of like, “This is not meeting the expectations of an RA.” Those conversations are super, super hard. But coming from a lens of, “I’m doing this because I care about you. The kindest thing I can do is make sure you’re holding yourself to these standards.” Really builds that ground of foundation of, “Maybe I won’t always agree with Kaitlyn, but she’s solid. And she’s going to have this baseline of trust that I can go to her because she held me accountable. I know she’s going to hold this community accountable.”
And I really think that’s how RA should view it too, that while these conversations are hard and they’re difficult and sometimes maybe just put us at unease to be having these conversations, you’re setting this foundation that your residents will know you have a standard, you’re going to follow that standards and you’re really an equitable and fair person so that it can build on the programs you do, the relationships you build, the way you’re going to act in your role.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah, that’s great. I think of the quote that we all know, which is, “No one will remember what you say or what you do, but they’ll remember how you made them feel.” And I think-
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Literally.
Anthony Martinez:
It’s important and just talking about accountability and building that relationship. And so having that reframe, I think for a lot of the RAs listening is important to have and going up to those situations and addressing it immediately of this is the attitude and what I need to carry myself with because they’ll pick up on those things. So that’s great. Thank you. All right, Kaitlyn, so I want us next for you to walk us through what a good policy enforcement looks like from your perspective. And so when an RA discovers a violation, whether it’s alcohol, guests, noise or something more serious, what should those first few minutes look like? How do you set the tone for a productive interaction with the student rather than a defensive one?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Yeah, absolutely. I think especially we consider things that happen, like most of the time when an RA is stumbling upon a policy violation. It’s like 2:00 in the morning kind of rounds thing. As much as we would love it to be 3:00 P.M. on a Thursday when we’re discovering these things, most of the time it’s middle of the night. You either get called, you’re doing a round and it’s one of those ugh moments. You’re just about to be done. So make sure taking a step back and that first minute and being like, “Okay, this is a policy violation. Take a deep breath, let’s make sure we’re in the proper space themselves.” Because if you’re going into it the gung ho where it’s like adrenaline’s running, things like that, that can really amp up a student. But also the same breadth of, if you’re not really there to hear and see and do the things, then you’re probably missing out on a lot of good details. Because as I’m sure all the RA’s listening here know, you’re the boots on the ground as we say, you’re the first person there.
You’re probably going to be the people, the only ones there in the moment that are seeing the situation. And so when you’re typing up that report, make sure you’re aware of that of, you’re not going to be able to go back and look. I, as a conduct person, when I’m reading these incident reports, I’m not going to be able to know more details in the situation, be able to call in unless I’m talking to the individuals or the RA. And sometimes that’s hard. So this first few minutes, take a step back, “Okay, what are we looking at? What do I need to do?” And then just go in it with a calmness and a enforcement of policy, but nobody’s here trying to be a bad cop kind of situation. We’ve all broken policy, we’ve all messed up. We’re human beings, it’s happened. So making sure as much as you’re addressing the situation, we’re not making judgments, we’re not doing things such as like, “Wow, you guys are really doing this right now?”
You’re there to just observe, document, and move forward. And I think making sure RAs know that that’s kind of their role in this can also put some ease when we think of people who start asking all the questions. “Oh wait, wait, wait, I’m on ROTC, I’m in athletics. What does this mean? I can’t be in trouble.” And then the RA’s the one having to answer all those questions. Being able to say, “Listen, I’m just here to observe. I recognize that this is a policy violation. From my understanding, you’ll be able to talk to somebody who can make that more professional answering of questions later.” Can also really help those first few minutes when it seems like any opportunity, something’s going to kind of amp up.
Anthony Martinez:
No, that’s great. I think you really hit the nail on the head and going into our next topic too, because you talk about arriving on the scene being like, are you ready to take a deep breath and able to handle the situation? And so the next question is about escalation when handling policy. And so one thing that complicates these situations is knowing when an RA should handle something themselves versus when to immediately involve professional staff members, and so when to reach out to that contact. And I know it’s different for different institutions as well, and so that’s something I want to acknowledge, but from your experience, what are some clear indicators that a situation needs to be escalated beyond the RA level?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Yeah, absolutely. I think with this, like you said, it’s different per institution, but a good rule of thumb is if there’s any sort of safety concerns automatically should need to go up a level. We think of things such as medical safety concerns, physical safety concerns, or even just situations depending on your institution. If you feel as an RA that you’re not sure this is something you should be able to handle, the beauty is you get to call up and get to ask. There never should be a situation where you’re making that judgment call as an RA and you can’t call up and ask. Now granted, again, it’s the 2:00 in the morning kind of deal. People want to make sure if it’s something that they don’t have to call up, they’re not waking someone up at 2:00 in the morning, but if there’s ever a time as an RA that you’re really not sure, call up.
I remember in my time as a professional staff member for housing, I got a call from one of my RAs and they’re like, “Listen, it’s 3:00 in the morning, it’s an alcohol situation. I know I’m supposed to be the one to handle this. There’s 30 people in this room and I’m a little, I can’t handle all of this stuff.” And I was like, “That makes sense.” And they’re like, “They’re intoxicated.” Words were being said that were starting to make the RA feel really uncomfortable. And so as a professional staff member, we got you. I got to go there, help handle the situation.
And so just as a reminder, when we think of the situations where maybe we’re thinking about escalation, maybe it needs to go up a level to professional staff member or we’re looking at calling in different resources like public safety or EMS or things or EMS, EMTs, excuse me, that you’re able to call and ask. It’s perfectly okay. I think every professional staff member would rather be on the phone saying, “Hey, no, that’s definitely something y’all can handle, but I’ll stay on the phone and walk you through it.” Versus the next morning calling an RA being like, “What happened? Who was called about this?” So just as a rule of thumb, if it’s safety, definitely call up, but also ask if you’re not sure.
Anthony Martinez:
Yeah, for sure. Definitely call those individuals that are there to support you. That is ultimately what they’re there for is for support. And so in these situations, like the 30 people that you mentioned, we are also documenting all of that information. I know there’s a lot to our roles. And so I kind of want to talk about the administrative side when it comes to policy violations and the documentation of that. And so you’ve probably seen a lot of incident reports that make your job easier and others that make your job really, really hard when they come in. And so what should RAs know about documenting violations in a way that’s thorough, fair, and also legal sounding? And how do they maintain their relationships also after the paperwork is filed? And so what does a good report look like? Also, and you’ve mentioned it before, but how do they keep those relationships once it’s submitted to the proper party?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Got you. Yeah, absolutely. I’m going to go on a weird tangent here. Everyone follow me. Cool. I want to start by this. 1961, there was a court case called Dixon versus Alabama. If anyone’s not sure of it, definitely go read it up. But the purpose of it was to give students rights at universities. And so just know that there is legal precedent for what rights a student has when they start going through a disciplinary process. One of those rights is to be able to know what’s being alleged and respond to it. Put that back to the RA role, I think a lot of RAs forget students who are accused of policy violations read the exact report that they write. And I know it can be sometimes different for institutions, but I’m about 99.999% sure every institution hands the incident report to an alleged student in the college process and is like, “Here you go, read it over.”
And so as an RA, knowing that before writing these situations, making sure it’s like, okay, as I’m typing up an incident report, you’re doing the standard that we talk about. Documenting everything. If you’re not sure you should document it, go ahead, let the offices kind of decide or the professional staff members decide if it’s relevant or not. But also know that the tone and the things that you’re sharing will absolutely be said verbatim to a student who then goes through that disciplinary process. I’ve straight up had situations, not at my current institution, but some previous situations where I definitely have felt an RA’s frustration as I’m reading the incident report and then I’m having to walk a student who’s now kind of maybe a little antsy with this RA because they’ve been reported then is reading an incident report where the student can pick up on it too. And so it’s just different levels of things. So I think a lot of housing institutions and housing departments do really well job of document everything, take the photos, whatever it looks like, here’s how you get identification.
But I think on an end that is not really covered when we talk about documentation, emphasizing that and someone’s going to read this, your housing staff’s going to read it, your conduct office is going to read it, could be Title IX is going to read it, and then that student is probably going to read it, which can put a lot of pressure on our RA’s. But just making sure you’re being that objective. And if you’re not sure about something, if you’re like, “I don’t know, this person seemed really aggressive or really said certain things that I wasn’t comfortable with.” Quotes are great because that’s not you putting a judgment on it, that’s you saying, “This is exactly what they said.” And then I, as a professional staff member can have that conversation with a student of like, “The RA said that you had said X, Y, and Z. It seems like you were really frustrated. Let’s talk about addressing frustration and not being rude to RAs.” So kind of a long tangent with all of that. But just remember people, including that student are going to read what you write.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, exactly. I always tell my students, I’m like, “Imagine this is going to be read at the Supreme Court.” I’m like, “It’s important for you to know that your words may be read out loud.” I was like, So maybe you should read your report out loud before you submit it so we make sure it just makes sense and there’s no spelling errors.” And so I think it’s great that you touch on that. And then the final question I have for you in our general questions is, again, they’ve submitted the report and everything and so you’ve seen these situations either become really punitive or become genuine learning experiences. And so how can an RA frame a policy violation as an opportunity for growth rather than just a consequence?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Absolutely. And I think a lot of the reason that people view it in that punitive sense, because, and again, to advocate for the conduct offices, all of us are really trying to be educational. No conduct office is aligning themselves with the criminal system. We always do everything we can to say a university’s policy violations conduct office is not court because we want it to be that learning experience. But I recognize a lot of that comes from just the scaredness of being in an office. “I don’t want to get removed from the university. I don’t want this to jeopardize my financial aid. I don’t want this to cause me to have to lose my housing.” And so when RAs are handling those situations as policy violations, I recognize that’s where a lot of the base fear of a student and even the RA get involved with it.
We never want to resolve in a situation that is sending someone home, but to frame these things as educational experiences, I’d really encourage it to not just be that moment. If you’re an RA and you have a resident and you write them up for a policy violation and that’s the last you all talk about it, you’re really doing a detriment. You’re really framing this as this is a box of something we don’t need to talk about anymore and let’s push it aside. And that’s not a learning experience. And so I really encourage our ways to fight the stigma of like, “Yeah, this person got written up and I’m not going to talk to them about it.” The next day, that weekend, “Hey, next time I see you, hey, let’s talk for a minute. I know that was really scary probably when I wrote you up for an alcohol violation. Can we talk about it? How are you feeling now? What’s it look like?”
And opening the door to that student is not viewing the whole situation in this scared stigma, you might learn a lot of things about what happened, why the person did it, and just opening the dialogue. Totally not expecting RAs to do the job of a lot of conduct offices, which is do the why things are a policy violation, here’s educational outcomes and a workshop and all these things. But just starting the door of like, “Let’s still talk about this the next day and make sure that we’re not leaving with these, I don’t know if this is a feeling or I don’t know what this is and I don’t know if I can talk about it.” Really sets students up and RAs up to continue that relationship aspect of working with students and policy violations.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes. Thank you, Kaitlyn. Thank you. We are coming close on time, but I do want to ask you some rapid fire questions really quick. And so a question I have for you is, what do you think is the most common mistakes RAs make when discovering a violation?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Deciding themselves whether they think something’s a violation or not. Make sure you just document it and throw it at the office and throw it at your supervisor. They’ll decide.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes. What is the piece of advice you have for RAs who hate confrontation?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Go back to the root. Why do you hate confrontation? It’s a total work on yourself thing, but make sure you’re not viewing it because confrontation is a bad thing. It’s, “Maybe I’m scared, maybe I don’t think I know all the policies to have the situation. Maybe I don’t know this resident well enough to feel that I could have a card conversation.” And work on those things first so you’re prepared for when the confrontation happens.
Anthony Martinez:
And then I know you’ve talked about this, but what is one thing every RA should remember when writing an incident report?
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
They will read it. Everyone will read it. The student will read it.
Anthony Martinez:
Everyone is going to read it. Yes.
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Yes.
Anthony Martinez:
Well, thank you Kaitlyn. If you want to let the audience know how to connect with you, but we really appreciate your time here on Roompact and I’m sure the RAs appreciate hearing what you have to say as well.
Kaitlyn “KC” Charette:
Yes, absolutely. Can totally connect with me on LinkedIn. You can email me. If you go to Johns Hopkins Office of Student Conduct, my connection stuff is all on there as well. So yeah, happy to connect and chat with people.
Anthony Martinez:
Yes, thank you. And then again, for our listeners, remember that enforcing policy isn’t about being the bad guy. It’s about creating safe and inclusive communities built around accountability as was mentioned today. And so when you approach these violations, remember just to approach them with empathy, fairness, and focus on learning. You’re modeling the kind of community standards that make residence halls better for everyone and so you’re a part of that. And the goal isn’t to avoid these scary situations, it’s to handle them with grace, professionalism, and care for all of those involved. And so until next time, thank you for listening with us here at Roompact and we’ll talk with y’all again.
