When Alex Wetzel joined the University of New Mexico two and a half years ago, Symplicity Advocate was already there.
But, there was some work to do.
“We were given the system and nobody had ever set it up,” says Wetzel, Student Accountability and Conflict Resolution Specialist at UNM. “Until we met in person with Jake about two years ago, we had never set up a lot of the meeting functions, a lot of the functionality.”
Today, UNM runs a stable, streamlined conduct process that Wetzel helped build from the ground up.
Learning From Scratch
Wetzel had never worked in a system like Advocate before. “I was learning from scratch,” he says. “I learned everything self-taught or working with Jake, our client specialist.”
The early days had their challenges. “There were times where I felt a bit lost, but when I started working with Jake, things started to make a lot more sense,” he explains. Between client manager support, the Symplicity Help Center, and hands-on exploration, Wetzel became the office’s resident expert.
“I became the go-to Advocate person in our office just because I explored a lot...”
His advice for anyone hesitant to take on a new system is simple. “Just dig in and see where you can change stuff. Once I started to understand the nuance of it, everything started to make a bit of sense.”
A Workflow Built to Evolve
UNM treats its Advocate setup as a work in progress, by design. “We do continuous improvement,” Wetzel says. “If something’s not quite working out, we change it.”
That mindset has paid off. “We’ve got it to the point where we can triage cases depending on what’s coming in,” he says. The team has built out a range of incident types, charges, sanctions, and meetings. “We’ve made it streamlined into something that works for us.”
When the Stop Campus Hazing Act introduced new requirements, the team configured Advocate to support them.
Handling Complex Cases
Interpersonal conflict now makes up a large share of UNM’s caseload. These cases often mean recording statements from multiple sides and tracking many conversations at once.
Advocate’s child cases and individual notes keep it all organized.
“We’re using the true functionality of Advocate to actually make our lives a bit easier,” he says. “I spoke to this person last Thursday, and now I can record the note I had with him. It helps us see a little bit of everything that’s going on with all of the cases.”
Documenting for the Future
With a stable system in place, UNM is now focused on sustainability. “We finally got to a point where we’re stable and where we can functionally use the system repeatedly and have everything work out,” Wetzel says.
The team is documenting procedures and building training materials “so that we can have the next person jump in the seat and be trained.” They’re also expanding sanctions for conduct and educational outcomes, work he describes as “interesting and fun to do.”
What’s Next
Wetzel already has a list of future builds, including more letters and templates, expanded educational and restorative practices, and incident actions for responsibilities beyond traditional conduct.
Asked to describe Advocate in one word, he needed two. “A useful tool.”
Looking back on the journey, Wetzel is proud of the progress. “It’s been really nice to actually build it from where we were to where we are now.”
