Skidmore College Campus Restorative Justice Facilitator Training
September 20-22, 2013
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Training is a lot of fun. It is also necessary to get a strong sense of RJ principles
and the necessary skills to facilitate RJ dialogues. Here’s a list of places that
I have conducted trainings on campus RJ:
RJ Training Sites
- University of Alberta
- University of California, Office of the President
- Clarkson University
- Denison University
- Eastern Mennonite University
- Florida Gulf Coast University
- Keene State College
- University of Maryland
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Northeastern University
- Rochester Institute of Technology
- Skidmore College
- State University of New York, Student Conduct Administrators
- Wells College
- Association for Student Conduct Administration
- National Association of Student Personnel Administrators
- University and College Ombuds Association
- Colorado Forum on Restorative Community Justice
Gehring Academy RJ Training, June 2009
Resources
Three training resources that many people request are the facilitator’s script, role plays, and film clips. Here you go:
RJ Conferencing Script
Many facilitator scripts are used in restorative practice. Although some argue that you should not use a script at all, so that you can be flexible and responsive to the circle participants, most believe a script is helpful to ensure consistency of practice, and especially helpful to beginning practitioners. The script, which you can download here, is used at Skidmore College, and is adapted from several popular RJ scripts for the campus setting.
Role Plays
The most important part of RJ training is facilitator skill-building practice, and that means lots of role plays. Here’s a few we developed featuring student offenders and common conduct violations.
Film Clips
This clip, from the 1982 film, is dramatic and we use it to highlight the philosophical differences between restorative and punishment-focused philosophies.
Paintball Case
Features a juvenile case in Colorado in which a boy shot a paintball into a crowded blinding a girl in one eye. Tom Cavanaugh wrote a case study of this incident, which is a nice supplement to the clip.
Don Imus Apology
Apology letters are a common sanction in RJ, and on this site I offer a set of suggested guidelines for writing them. This clip shows broadcaster Don Imus apologizing for derogatory comments he made about members of the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball Team. Training groups have a good time identifying the many ways in which his apology fails to meet the apology guidelines.
Kaavya Viswanathan Plagiarism
In this Katie Couric interview, Harvard University student Kaavya Viswanathan takes responsibility (or does she?) for plagiarizing several passages in her popular teen novel. This clip is terrific for generating discussion about what it means to admit fault and take responsibility. As a supplement, see a short essay I published in the Journal of Student Conduct Administration called “Not with a Bang but a Whimper: A Missed Opportunity for Restorative Justice in a Plagiarism Case.”
Victim Impact: Burglary
In this clip, a victim of a burglary describes the personal impact of the offense. The clip is part of a terrific series by the Department of Justice Office of Victims of Crime that features victims of a variety of crimes, and also includes a training manual.
Drunk Driving Case
This clip documents a restorative conference in response to a drunk driving incident that resulted in a death. Carolyn Boyes-Watson wrote a case study in her textbook, Crime and Justice: A Casebook Approach.
MSU has produced two great clips:
Overview: The first is a recent promotional video that focuses on the use of RJ in residential life.
Spartan: The second is an entertaining advertisement for the program produced by a student comedy group.
This is a short clip from a pioneering campus RJ program talking about the value of RJ and a terrific testimonial from a student offender.
