Boundaries Case Scenarios.2.docx

Boundary issues in academia are rarely addressed by college or university policy despite the risk of problematic or unethical faculty-student interactions (Owen and Castro 2007). These twelve tips are suggested for the development of an institutional boundary guideline and training program and are based on the outcomes and feedback from an existing institutional boundary training program. For this work, we developed and administered a survey to faculty and staff both before a group discussion session and again after the training session. Based on a review of the literature and the survey responses, these 12 “tips” or best practices to mitigate possible ethical and legal issues that can arise between faculty/staff and students are suggested as guidance for developing an institutional boundary policy.