Restorative Justice Practices

Grounded in restorative principles, the Beloit College Restorative Justice Campus Initiative aims to build community, address campus-wide concerns, and offer alternatives to punitive responses by centering relationships, repairing harm, and fostering personal and communal growth, through dialogue, accountability, and collective healing.

Approach

Our approach is to empower students, faculty, and staff at Beloit College to engage in restorative practices that build trust, strengthen community bonds, and uphold values of equity, inclusion, and respect. Through education, facilitated circles, and collaborative problem-solving, we strive to transform conflict into opportunities for learning and connection, contributing to a resilient and compassionate campus culture.

Circles of concern are dialogue circles facilitated by a trained collective of students and staff. They are aimed at discussing or debriefing an issue that affects a broad swath of the campus community. These circles and their facilitators will be activated at times where the moment calls for a response to an issue or incident that affects everyone, though in different ways.

These circles aim to provide support to community members, understand the impact of the issue or incident, and to invite collaborative problem-solving to address the issue at hand.

Restorative circles invite those responsible for harm and those harmed into a facilitated dialogue. The aim of restorative circles is to understand the impact of actions and harm caused, and to engage the parties in addressing and repairing the harm.

Participation in restorative circles is preceded by “pre-conferencing” sessions with all parties involved, where facilitators will explain the process of restorative circles, gather information about the incident, needs for participation, and what each party hopes to get out of the process. Only if all parties willingly choose to participate in a circle will a meeting be scheduled.

The circle facilitators aim to help participants share their perspectives on what happened and what actions need to be taken. After the circle or circles, coordinators follow up with parties on the actions mutually agreed upon by all parties.

Meet our team

Faculty, staff, and student facilitators trained in restorative practices are available to facilitate circles at any level.

Faculty, staff, and students trained in restorative practices.

Additional resources

The Circle Way: includes many resources for community-building circles and shared leadership.
Approaching Conflict: understand your responses to conflict and widen your skills in managing conflict by watching this “Conflict Styles” video and taking this short quiz.
Business Chemistry Hunching Tool: Understand the different ways that people collaborate as well as your preferred styles.

Contact us

Questions about the process

Contact the initiative at restjust@beloit.edu.

Request a restorative justice response

Complete the intake form

Program Leads

Dr. Gloria Bradley, Ed.D.

Associate Dean of Students, Co-Director of the Weissberg Program in Human Rights and Social Justice, Director of Restorative Justice Campus Initiative, Title IX Coordinator

Email: bradleyg@beloit.edu
Call: +1 608-363-2617
Office: Dean of Students office, 2nd floor, north side Pearsons Hall

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