This artifact, titled Conduct and Conflict: Meaning Making and Moral Development Through Institutional Conduct Processes submitted for ELPS 433: Student Development in Higher Education.  In this paper, I analyzed the educational intervention of the student conduct system through the lens of student development theory.  As one of my larger research projects done in the program, this assignment challenged me to survey the current literature and identify the common themes and connections to student development theories.  I was also challenged use the literature from the course to interpret and critique various theories that were applicable to student conduct practice.  This artifact shows my ability to develop reasonable and logically sound interpretations and connect theory to practice in my own work.

            I chose the topic of student conduct for this paper because it was an emerging interest for me in student affairs.  Additionally, I engage in conduct administration with students weekly and believed it to be an optimal opportunity for me to use student development theory to help situate a student’s experience.  Even though there was not much research that bridged the gap between theoretical frameworks, I identified common themes and applied them to the theories developed by Baxter-Magolda, Chickering and Reisser, and Rost, to name a few.  For me, this project was challenging because it required many hours of outside research on a topic in order create a narrowly tailored final product.  Since this was one of my first large research assignments, I have continued to look back on this project when I take on research for a variety of projects in my coursework and assistantship.  This assignment also stressed the importance of using research and theory in concert in order to develop programs that meet the needs of students.  For me, I used this research to aid my conversations with students during conduct meetings and develop sanctions that respond to their behavior and community impact.