The Office of Community Responsibility
The Office of Community Responsibility (OCR) is staffed by an experienced team of professionals dedicated to the growth and development of students both in and outside of the classroom. When faced with a challenging or complicated situation, the OCR can serve as a resource for students, staff, faculty, and family members looking for guidance. Our staff strives to be approachable, knowledgeable, and current with best practices in the field of community standards and academic integrity. The heart of our work is rooted in the value and support of our campus community members. We welcome inquiries regarding educational programming, student support, and guidance with the University's community standards and academic integrity processes.
Panel Member Spotlight
Kenechukwu Echezona
4th year Senior - Baccalaureate, Computer Science, (He, Him, His), Hometown/Home country: Howell, New Jersey
What has been the most rewarding part of serving on the panel?
The most rewarding part of serving the panel has been knowing I’m directly serving the CMU community, not only through ensuring The Code and other principles are upheld, but helping students and professors reach resolutions on cases so they may begin the proper remedial steps.
How has this experience contributed to your growth as a student and leader?
This experience has helped me develop my ability to collect and reason about facts and motivations of situations, as well as practice collaborating with others and coming to a conclusion based on our own skillsets and experiences.
What advice would you give to other students interested in joining the panel?
My advice: practice being aware of and challenging your biases whenever you can, and be eager to seek out new information where you can. Everyone has biases, as humans are built to be very good at pattern recognition, and society does a lot to reenforce those patterns. But this can lead to making decisions that don’t reflect reality due to insufficient amounts of information. Take what you think might be true about a scenario and ask yourself, “what could make that notion I hold false?” This puts you into a mindset of curiosity, one that’s more receptive and attentive to the truth.