On August 11, 2023, Dean of Students Samuel Bicknell announced major changes to the disciplinary response system, communicated in an email to the student body that outlined the changes as a part of yearly hand book revisions.
The Student Life Office consulted the College Advising Office, class deans, and Student Body President Preyas Sinha ’24 in order to devise the new disciplinary system.
The first major change was merging the previous Academic Honesty Committee and Disciplinary Committee into a new committee called the Community Values Council. According to Mr. Bicknell, the deans renamed the DC and AHC committees to the CVC in an effort to lessen the negative preconceptions students held about the disciplinary process. Mr. Bicknell said, “[The concern] I was addressing was when the student reenters the community and how the student felt perceived by the community as a result of the in fraction.”
Renaming allowed the council to refocus on a goal of building a stronger community rather than simply punishing students, according to Mr. Bicknell. Mr. Bicknell believes the change in language surrounding the disciplinary process will lower the stakes of the CVC process. Mr. Bicknell said, “We felt like much of the system was antiquated. We wanted to create a space where we could dig into conversations with students and find ways to move forward with students with them as drivers of process.”
However, even though both the DC and AHC are now known as the CVC, the CVC is still separated based on academic integrity vs. major school rule violations.
Additionally, the Sexual Misconduct Response Committee has been renamed to the Sexual Misconduct Response Council and disciplinary hearings will now be referred to as meetings to lower the stakes of this part of the disciplinary process.
In addition to changes in terminology, the disciplinary process as a whole has also seen a change for this school year. To start, rule violations will now be divided into disciplinary and nondisciplinary responses as opposed to all in fractions receiving disciplinary responses.
While the CVC still decides whether a major school rule has been broken, the classification of disciplinary and nondisciplinary responses is shared between Mr. Bicknell, who oversees nonacademic major school rule violations, and Dean of Studies Lydia Hemphill, who oversees academic major school rule violations. Mr. Bicknell wrote that the decision would be based on the “scope, severity, and impact” of the violation in his email sent over the summer.
Warnings and reminders will now be considered nondisciplinary responses while enrollment review and probation will remain disciplinary responses.
Along with the distinction of disciplinary and nondisciplinary responses, the new disciplinary system also includes a Growth and Learning Plan crafted in a collaborative effort by the student, their class dean, and their advisor. Students must fulfill the full requirements outlined in their Growth and Learning Plan in the case of both non disciplinary and disciplinary responses.
The idea for including a Growth and Learning Plan as part of both nondisciplinary and disciplinary responses stems from the goal of promoting community values and growth in the disciplinary process according to Mr. Bicknell. He also said Growth and Learning Plans provide “more checkpoints with students to ensure they are contributing in positive ways to the community.”
Mr. Bicknell also said, “We want [students] to know that we care about them and will work with them through the challenges they are facing.” With a Growth and Learning plan, students are given the opportunity to “learn from their mistakes, grow from their experiences, and further contribute to the community,” Mr. Bicknell added.
Last spring, Sinha worked alongside the administration and advocated to allow students who have demonstrated significant growth as outlined through their Growth and Learning Plan to petition to change their disciplinary status from probation to a warning. This means that the student would only be expelled if they violated the same rule again, rather than if they violated. In contrast, students still on probation would be expelled if they broke any major school rule. More importantly, it means that since warnings are now classified as nondisciplinary responses, students who have shown growth and get off probation no longer have to report disciplinary action to colleges where as if they were on probation, a disciplinary response, they would have to report it to colleges.
Sinha said, “High school is a time [when] students make mistakes and I believe the school should reward and promote learning from these mistakes.” Sinha added that he “was glad to see in the summer that the administration took this line of thinking and applied through the rest of the disciplinary process.”
Many students, especially those who are serving their second year on the student panel for disciplinary responses, believe the shift from AHC/DC to CVC is positive. Oliver Browne ’24, who served on the AHC, now the nonacademic sector of the CVC, said he sees the policy change as a net positive for students. The new nondisciplinary nature of warning means students who make minor mistakes don’t have to report the incident to colleges, and Growth and Learning Plans are a great way to focus more on learning than repercussions.”
Lillian Regal ’24, who has been a part of the AHC, now the academic sector of the CVC, for two years, echoed Browne’s support of the new CVC, saying, “I think that these changes demonstrate that Deerfield is committed to balancing the facts that while we are kids who make mistakes, our actions have larger repercussions for ourselves and the community around us.”