The Office of Student Affairs is entrusted with the privilege of partnering with students to develop and steward healthy and interdependent community at Amherst College. Our various offices, departments, and services collaborate with local health and wellness resources in the Pioneer Valley to provide support to students as they encounter academic, interpersonal, or environmental challenges.
Intellectual life at the College is the central core of a student’s experience. Academic opportunities and obligations are interwoven with a complex mesh of threads representing relationships, social structures, nutrition, restfulness, and health. Pressures of all types affect wellness, and occasionally, behavior and judgment. Affected behaviors are just as varied as the pressures that precipitate them—and range from barely perceptible to concerning. Our emphasis on interdependence encourages all of us to be mindful of our own well being and that of others—and to notice and compassionately seek intervention for changing behaviors that could indicate that a person is in need of our individual or collective support.
The Director of Community Standards interacts directly with students to address conflicts as well as with other staff and faculty in support of their interventions and mediations. Conflict resolution may be informal or formal, and the director is available to inform parties about their opportunities and the policies and procedures that Amherst College offers.
Derived from the College’s Honor Code, the Student Code of Conduct is the document in which student-focused policies and procedures are recorded. Students enjoy the privileges and responsibilities found in the Code, and all students are warmly invited to share their views about current or future language with the director.
Conflicts related to intellectual responsibility and social policies, excluding sexual misconduct and gender-based conduct, may be resolved by the Community Standards Adjudication Process and the Community Standards Review Board. When appropriate, mediated resolutions will be considered and implemented toward the goal of resolving conflict while improving interpersonal relationships.
Sex-based conduct that is prohibited by the College and by Title IX is addressed by the Title IX Coordinator and may be referred to the Sexual Misconduct Adjudication Process.
