Over the summer, Trinity faculty departments have collectively reviewed, modified and updated hundreds of policies. The Office of the Dean of Students has directly worked with 20 different policies this summer, specifically the student-facing ones.
Christina Castillo, assistant director for parent communication and student conduct, shared that over the summer, the team largely reviewed policies for maintenance purposes. Trinity had switched to a dedicated website for all of its policies several years ago after having the policies scattered throughout its official website. The Office of the Dean of Students and other departments are currently working to establish uniformity among the policies in the platform, as well as adhere to some new legal regulations.
“A lot of it has really just been to update what we need to update, so we’re in compliance and everything in our portal has consistency,” Castillo said. “And then some to make sure that we are using best practices, like national best practices, but also making sure that the trends and things that we’re writing in our policy are actually what we are doing.”
Most of the policy changes revolve around university compliance and don’t affect students. Jessica Edonick, associate vice president of Student Affairs and Dean of Students, outlined five policies that have undergone specific changes and are likely to affect students on a deeper level.
Hazing Policy: This policy has been updated in accordance with Biden’s Stop Campus Hazing Act. Trinity now must publicly report any hazing incidents. Additionally, the annual hazing prevention training will become campus-wide, meaning now faculty and staff will also receive training.
Safer Parties Initiative (SPIn): Although this policy is still in the review process, Dean Edonick recommended staying aware of its upcoming changes because it affects all student organizations and athletics. SPIn outlines Trinity’s expectations on off-campus events involving alcohol, including Trinity’s rules surrounding public intoxication and recommendations for events that involve alcohol. Castillo also mentioned that the majority of changes to this policy revolve around outdated practices, such as referring to the no-longer-active “Optimal Buzz” standard.
University-initiated Withdraw Policy: This policy outlines the procedures when Trinity must withdraw a student, such as if the student is a health or safety risk as a last resort. The changes involved clarifying what would lead to a university-initiated withdrawal and the process for a possible return. There were no changes to the policy itself. It is still undergoing review and has not been officially updated.
Health Services Notice of Privacy Practice: The changes in this policy fall under the non-significant changes category. The policy itself did not change, but terms and definitions were added to the policy for clarification. Marcy Youngdahl, director of integrated counseling and health and wellness services, underlined why students should review the policy.
“It’s important that a patient understands their rights. Health information privacy is very important. There are federal laws that we must adhere to. More than that, we want our patients to be informed of how we maintain records of their visit, who we are authorized to share this information with — and for what purpose and for patients to understand how we can communicate with them,” Youngdahl wrote in an email.
Emotional Support Animal (ESA) Policy: This policy outlines the protocols and regulations around having an ESA for students with on-campus residency. As part of a regular review process, Laura Marquez Ramsey, director of student accessibility services, explained that the language changes made to the ESA Policy served to help clarify the process. The team also added updated links, including links to the SAS application and documentation guidelines.
Not all of the changed policies had major alterations. Castillo explained that policy changes can either be minor or more extensive in nature but both undergo revision processes. A policy might have smaller changes, such as replacing a title or modifying the wording for clarity and concision. In these cases, the policy still retains its essential characteristics and undergoes less extensive reviews. If a policy has more extensive changes, there is a more thorough review process. The “Policy on Policies” holds detailed guidelines of these categories and can be found in Trinity’s Policies website.
While this is not an extensive list of the updated policies, students will receive an email list with the policies and their changes from Trinity. For more information or to review the policies, the website (policies.trinity.edu) provides a complete catalog of Trinity’s policies.
