Professional Documents
Culture Documents
When a student staff member comes across a loud room on rove or receives a call
while on duty, it may begin an important process often referred to as the
student conduct process. Though they may not realize it in the heat of an
incident, documenting a situation and writing the subsequent incident report
are important roles that a student staff member plays in the conduct process.
Writing a clear, coherent, professional incident reports begins as soon as you get a call on duty
or come across an incident. It is important to take as many notes as possible during an incident
for easy translation into a formal incident report. Notes taken during an incident should work
towards answering the 5Ws, recording any policy or conduct violations, and making it easier to
write what happened during the incident in the incident report.
The most important times to take note of are the start and end times and
the times of any pivotal events.
Note where the incident took place (ex. bathroom, lounge, hallway, room
227). Be sure to note if the action is taking place in multiple locations or if
the action moves places (Room to bathroom, hallway to room).
Responding CAs
Professional staff
If they respond or even if they are just consulted
While determining who is often as easy as collecting IDs, several problems can
arise when straightening out the who portion of an incident. Here are some
frequent problems and some tips to address them.
Whose room is this?
Its important to identify whose room the incident is taking place in and use them as a
point person for communication with the residents
In some situations, the residents of the room may not be present when you come
across an incident. Have a resident in the room call them and ask them to come back
to their room. If they are reluctant, make sure they know that they may be responsible
for what happens in their room, even if they are not present.
Not every resident involved in an incident will always have their TCNJ ID on them. If the resident
lives in the building and the situation is under control, have one CA escort each resident who is
without an ID to their rooms to obtain it.
Not every guest who enters the building before 8pm will promptly return down to the night desk in
order to be signed into your building properly. As a result, you might encounter an individual who
does not go to TCNJ but is also not signed into the building.
Ask them for a drivers license or other form of identification to verify their name. Also record their
phone number, address, and which resident is their host.
After the incident, make sure the host and their guest go to the night guest to be properly signed
into the building.
Why you addressed the incident or what brought it to your attention. Ask
questions to try and gather the full story including what happened before
you were there.
While each incident is different and the amount of notes you are able to
take will change based on the type of incident and how many staff members
are present, taking notes during an incident is extremely important and will
make writing an incident report that much easier.
Writing the narrative of an incident report is simply translating the notes taken during an
incident and using them to write a formal description of the incident.
When writing this description, you must follow a few simple guidelines:
The narrative of the incident report must be written in the first person
The first time a persons name appears in the narrative of an incident report, use the
persons first and last name preceded by their title (ex. Resident John Smith)
The second time a persons name appears in the narrative, use only the last name preceded
by their title (ex. Resident Smith)
The first time a title is referenced in the narrative of an incident report, spell out the title
completely followed by an acronym for the title in parenthesis and the persons full name.
The second time a title is referenced in the narrative, use only the acronym and the last
name
CA Clarkson
RD Brown
Make sure to include the names of everyone involved in the situation in the narrative of the
incident report, even if they did nothing more than hand you their ID and sit back down.
I collected the IDs of Residents John Smith, Greg Sall, Erin Whitt, and Jess Diss
I observed Residents John Smith, Greg Sall, and Jess Diss sitting on the bed when I entered the
room
Because alcohol bottles vary in sizes and amounts, it is important to record sizes and
descriptions for the bottles. While student staff members are not allowed to touch the bottles,
an easy way to find out amount or size is to ask a resident to show you the labels when they
are dumping the alcohol or when they are disposing the bottles.
End the narrative of the incident report by indicating the time student staff members
left the incident and approximately how long the incident ended from beginning to
end.
Be sure to inform residents involved that you will be documenting the situation
and that a pro staff member from ResEd may be reaching out to them.
If students begin asking questions about the student conduct process, explain
that your role is only to document the situation and that is best for them to write
down questions that they may have and ask these questions to a professional
staff member.