An ongoing dispute between Travis Carlson, a third year student at Winona State University, and Residence Life came closer to being resolved on Friday.
Carlson met with Paula Scheevel, director of Residence Life Housing, and Tracy Rahim, residence hall director of Sheehan to discuss a disciplinary situation that occurred in a residence hall.
During finals week of fall semester, an RA announced herself and entered a student room to hand out slips of paper of administrative warning.
Carlson believed that the wording of the papers sounded like a sanction of the student. Sanctions, according to conduct process, cannot be issued without meeting with a hall director and creating a written report.
Concerned that the student’s rights had been violated, Carlson wrote a letter to Rahim expressing his point of view.
He waited for a month with no response to his letter before contacting Scheevel. A meeting between the three was arranged for Friday.
During the meeting, Carlson was told that the paper that was handed out to the student was intended as a written warning and not a sanction.
Scheevel and Rahim agreed to change the wording of the paper so it sounded more like a written warning.
A written warning, unlike a sanction, is not included in Residence Life’s database of disciplinary situations.
Carlson was told that students can not file appeals on behalf of other students, a policy he disagrees with.
“Students should be able to act on behalf of other students. That’s the whole idea of constituency groups,” said Carlson.
A written warning is another step between a student getting a reprimand and a student getting written up.
The normal progression is verbal warning, written warning, and then a report filed to a hall director that can result in a sanction.
However, both verbal warnings and written warnings can be waived depending on the severity of the student transgression.
Carlson hopes to specify in writing exactly which situations a written warning can be waived, in an effort to keep written warnings from becoming under-used.
He also hopes to implement a policy change that says that written warnings will not affect future sanction cases.
“Let’s say a student is blasting their music at four in the morning. An RA comes along and decides to waive the written warning and write the student up. The student receives an administrative warning on their record,” Carlson said. “On another night if the student has a less serious offense, playing music at midnight or something, the administration would have to give the student community service when they look at the database and see the previous record.”
Carlson believes that changing the written warning policy to make written warnings more common will make RAs appear better in the eyes of their students.
“RAs will be able to say that I warned you 2 or 3 times, so now I have to write you up,” said Carlson.
After the meeting, Carlson is hopeful that policies are going to be put in writing that will benefit the students.
“Policies should be standardized so that they stay the same when staff changes. I’m looking for consistency,” said Carlson.

Contact Greg at GLEichte1670@winona.edu