Courageous Conversations: Approaching Amnesty Through Honesty as Reparations to a Learning Community

Abstract

Misconduct processes in higher education are often traumatizing for students and a heavy burden for staff. Worse, in many instances, they are more integrity theater than a method for redressing conduct failures. Having experienced slow, legalistic, and debatably effective means of handling misconduct, two senior investigators from UNSW Sydney conceived and implemented an effective, efficient, and empathetic model for handling all serious conduct issues at their university. This chapter walks readers through their experience and lays out the “Courageous Conversations” approach, with its principles and benefits.