Kiely heads small, dedicated staff in Office of Conduct and Mediation

By Jake Nevrla

Contributing Writer

Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009

Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009

There are a few places on campus that most students try their hardest to avoid – the Office of Conduct and Mediation is one of them.
A great number of students will complete a full four years of college without ever having to set foot inside that part of Hitchcock Hall. But when a student does find that they are on the wrong side of the university’s rules, Sarah Kiely is usually the first person that they will speak to about the conduct and mediation process. For Kiely, this can mean anything from giving advice on how to prepare for conduct proceedings to simply pointing a student looking for help with conflict mediation in the right direction.
“I’m often the first line of contact with students,” said Kiely, who deals with cases that range from excessive noise complaints to more extreme instances such as verbal and physical abuse. Kiely also provides administrative services and oversees the various work-study positions in the office.
   Recently, Kiely was honored with the university’s Presidential Award for Excellence, an award given to five university employees every year who have demonstrated outstanding work and dedication in their field. As the Senior Administrative Assistant, Kiely is one of only three full time staff that work in the Office of Conduct and Mediation. Although she may have been the one receiving recognition, Kiely said that she is humbled by the award and insisted that she couldn’t do her job without the help of the other staff and volunteers.
“They’re really great.” said Kiely “It makes coming here every day fulfilling – to work with so many people who volunteer their time to make sure that students receive the highest level of respect and due process.”
Whether dealing with a student who has committed an infraction, a concerned parent, or just someone looking for a little guidance, Kiely’s philosophy is that everyone deserves to be treated with the utmost kindness and respect. According to Kiely, “there are no bad students.”
   Faculty, staff and students submit nominations for the award, which are then reviewed by a committee made up by representation from the President's office, Human Resources and staff peers. Every year in May, the recipients of the award are presented with a plaque and $1,000 by the president of the university, in addition to having their names added to a plaque in Thompson Hall.
“The selection each year is a very challenging but extremely rewarding process,” said Christine VanHorn of the UNH Human Resources Department, who helps coordinate the awards process. “It is an absolute gift to be able to learn about the talented, diverse and deeply committed individuals that we work with every day in support of our mission to our students.”
   Even with an outstanding and committed staff, working in the Office of Conduct and Mediation is no walk in the park. UNH processes between 1,000 and 1,200 conduct incidents every year. On average, 60 percent of those incidents involve first year students. While no criminal proceedings take place through the university conduct system, criminal investigations can sometimes run parallel to the university’s involvement, according to George O’Connell, Program Coordinator for the Office of Conduct and Mediation.
   “We balance the needs of the students with the needs of the community,” said O’Connell. “I didn’t get into student affairs because I liked seeing them get evicted.”
   With the exception of the three full time staff members, the Office on Conduct and Mediation is operated by almost fifty volunteer student, faculty and staff members. These volunteers serve on conduct hearing boards and as peer advisors to students going through the conduct system.
   “These people take the time out of their work week to be here and that’s not an easy thing to do these days,” said O’Connell.

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Scavengers steal Scan TV sign Saturday

If you read on their facebook page for the stolen sign they accuse them of taking it. I just think that the blame game has gone too far on this campus and people see fraternities as a good scape goat. Yes some do some shady stuff, but at the same time one cannot instantly blame them. "They think it was maybe a fraternity stunt or scavenger hunt of some kind." - taken directly from their facebook page. I do hope that your sign does get returned because I understand how iconic it is for the university and the MUB.

posted by: UNHAlum
Faculty members need a wake-up call

It is time the faculity sucked it up like the rest of us on campus. This year staff over $40,000 received no raise, faculity received 5.5%. Take the 1.5% and be happy.
Do You remember why you became a professor? I hope, to pass your knowledge on to the next generation.
Some of you look like greedy individuals who can only think of the God almighty dollar and not the students you teach and mentor. If we keep increasing out tuition to pay for salaries students will look at other schools and then where will you be, on the street.

posted by: Robert Pettigrew
Faculty members need a wake-up call

I don't think it's fair to compare UNH to UMass (Amherst, I assume) and UConn. Both those schools are considerably larger than UNH — 26,000 and 20,000 undergrads, respectively — while the other schools mentioned are closer to UNH's size, give or take 3,000 students. Massachusetts and Connecticut are also feeling the effects of the recession slightly more than NH is. I realize that UNH commonly uses those schools as comparators, but those two are just on a different level than our school.
There are two other things I'm going to look up before I decide how I feel about this.
First, how does the average UNH professor's salary compare to to other universities? It's probably in line with other schools, but if it's significantly lower, shouldn't UNH profs get that too?
As some have said, if the pay is lower here, professors can quit and go to other schools — if they can find an open position somewhere else. But, if a professor leaves, the school will be left in the position of trying to attract a new teacher with lower-than-average salaries. Enact the raises and UNH remains competitive in keeping and hiring the best professors.
Second, what percentage of UNH's budget goes toward paying the professors? Again, this could be that the professors are asking the university to dedicate an equal amount to paying educators at UNH as they are paid at other schools. If UNH only dedicates 15% of the budget to prof pay and the other schools all dedicate 20%, why shouldn't that be changed? Not to sound Beck-ian, but I don't know and that's something that should be looked at.
Neither of those questions deal with the larger problem of education funding from the state, which I think was something like 2 percent (and that's for all schools, not just colleges). California students staged huge protests yesterday because fee hikes raised they amount they pay per year for school to around $11,000. Meanwhile, that's close to what UNH students have been paying for tuition alone for years, and it continues to rise. If Governor Lynch and our state reps don't start working to increase education funding in the state, all the groups involved, students, professors and administration, need to start showing the kind of outrage that California showed yesterday.

posted by: Clark Kent
Faculty members need a wake-up call

The whiny, lazy, faculty all need to get fired. I haven't seen a more wanna-be-entitled bunch anywhere I have worked. They don't deserve any raises, but instead a pay cut. The rest of the staff had a mandatory salary freeze that will last probably 2 years at least. Faculty also get the bonus of cheaper benefits than the rest of the staff. To top it off they are whiners and complainers about anything not in their contract or if they feel the least bit slighted by the administration. They got out of taking mandatory sexual-harrassment training that everyone else on staff had to take, since somehow their union filed a grievance with the administration that it wasn't required in their contract. The entire training was online and took less than an hour but that's too much for those slackers.
Tenure indeed is the only thing that keeps many of them employed, and it's a concept that needs to get thrown out. Many of them are dead wood, not bringing new ideas to the table and too 'busy' to try anything new, despite having many grad assistants and others to do all their real work, and the most over the top support structure of any organization I have seen.
Yet their greed continues unchecked! Ugh!
Good riddance!

posted by: Your name
Faculty members need a wake-up call

How quickly things change.
Just last week, when editorializing about a group of campus perverts, the attitude of the editors was: "we also don’t think it’s any of our business to judge an organization just because their activities are a shock to our system." Seven days ago we were advised to "shackle our judgment" and told that the campus S&M crowd "deserves respect." Now, a mere week later, when the same editorial board concludes that the UNH faculty union's collective bargaining position is "shocking," what do the editors do? Take their own advice and "shackle their judgment?" Offer respect to the faculty? Conclude that the negotiations are none of their business?
No, none of these. Instead, the hypocritical editors tell "whining" and "greedy" faculty they are lucky to have a job, and should be satisfied with whatever the administration considers to be a fair offer -- because, presumably, the administration ALWAYS tells the truth about university finances, and ALWAYS treats the employees of the university fairly.
Why not spend some effort actually learning the facts regarding the financial situation of the university -- revenues from the state, tuition increases, higher enrollments, grant money? Why not report on the value of the faculty and the university as an economic engine for the state? Why not investigate both the enormous increase in administrative salaries and the bloated growth in new administrative positions over the last two decades? Why not write about the relative compensation of your faculty compared to those with similar education, training, and experience in other fields? I guess these tasks were too challenging. It's just easier to call faculty names.
Everybody loves free-market capitalism as long as the managers and administrators get to call the shots and the workers remain docile and content with whatever the bosses decide they deserve. But, when workers assert their rights and engage in labor negotiations as equals -- well, that is just unacceptable to our enlightened editorial masters. You're all doing a great job of learning how to be corporate lap dog journalists.
Oh, and you spelled "principal" incorrectly.

posted by: Prof. "Greedy," Ph.D.

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Kiely heads small, dedicated staff in Office of Conduct and Mediation

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