Our campus is small

Today, ACUHO-I members talk about how they work with other campus models and departments to assist troubled or distressed students. Participating are: Richard DeShields Pandora Clearance, associate dean of pupils for housing and college student dwelling and senior carry out officer at Central Washington College; John Buck, associate dean of students at Webster University; Stacy Klippenstein, vice chancellor for college student affairs at Montana State University-Billings; and Paula Bland, director of residence existence in the University of Colorado-Boulder.
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Richard DeShields: Central Washington College has had a problem-solving team for about 15 years together with the intention of discussing incidents across the campus and preventative measures to ensure that students’ rights and responsibilities are supported and strengthened. This team – made up of our university police, counseling clinic, diversity center, college student conduct, wellness, and housing areas – typically discusses incidents across the campus and assign case workers while also focusing on prevention efforts. About four years ago, we started asking ourselves about the caseload, the follow-up for individual college students, who else about the campus ”needed to know” some of the information, and what processes we have in place to answer these questions. This led to the creation of a second team, our Threat Assessment Team. Do you all have similar teams, and what do you see as their purpose? Who makes up the team?
John Buck: At Webster College, we have a Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) that is designed to be a quick-forming and nimble team that can investigate and address the behavior of a pupil who is troubled, in crisis, or has been observed exhibiting troubling behavior by a member of the university community. The overarching goal of a BIT Team meeting is to gather any and all information available in the time Discount Pandora Charms, assess the situation, project any potential issues in the immediate and intermediate future, and develop initial methods of intervention deemed necessary. Our BIT Team is composed of representatives from three key offices: public safety, counseling, and the dean of students’ office. As a result, this provides us with a pool of ten staff members, any one of whom has the authority to convene a BIT Team meeting at any time composed of one representative from each of these three departments. The BIT Team at Webster essentially serves as the university’s Threat Assessment Team as well, providing an initial assessment of the situation and then bringing in any additional internal or external resources and personnel as needed.
If the BIT Team meeting is required for an issue involving a member of the university’s staff or faculty, the dean of students’ office role is replaced by human resources.
Stacy Klippenstein: At Montana State University-Billings (5,400 pupils, a commuter “urban” campus, the School of Technology location separated from the main campus), we have developed two teams: the University student Behavior Team (SBT) and the Whatup Team. For the purposes of this conversation, I will elaborate a little about the SBT, which is very similar to Webster’s BIT as described by John. We were developed in 2006 as a way to assess student behavior on campus and examine individual incidents and potential threats (code of pupil perform, housing policies, counseling needs, university police investigations). The team is composed of representatives from college police (chief and assistant chief), housing and student daily life Pandora Jewelry Sale, and the counseling center, as well as the vice chancellor for college student affairs. We, too, are designed to be quick-forming and nimble, as described by John, and to serve as the main threat assessment team. However, when we are dealing with an individual student regarding threat assessment (behavioral issues on campus, inside the classroom, etc. that are deemed threatening) we shrink in size to only a few members of the team: those who are closely related to the incident and have the ability to assess and make recommendations. As an example, we had a student at our University of Technology who was exhibiting some threatening behavior toward his instructor and other pupils. The interim chief of university police, one counselor, and I formed a quick response team to address that individual issue. The college student was temporarily suspended and was required to go through an external threat assessment prior to coming back to school. So, our SBT can be nimble enough to form a small team to assess threats.
Our campus is small, and staff resources are scarce (small housing staff, only two mental health counselors and both are aspect time, no dean of students, etc.). Therefore, the SBT is made up of those people who would be heavily involved within the investigation and review of each and every incident, including potential threat. But they have other jobs as well. This is a challenge for many institutions: How do you mobilize a threat assessment team when you only have two or three people capable of such a task? That could be a blessing (less politics, red tape, up and down management, etc.) Cheap Tiffany Jewelry, but it could hamper the quick response and full-scale review of an incident. Communication, training, and diligence is key.
I know that legal counsel for many colleges and universities have different thoughts about teams such as these and about appropriate record keeping and response; this is something we are still reviewing. Add the “Dear Colleague” letter (Title IX and ######ual harassment/violence) from the Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights and you now may need to add the Title IX Coordinator to the team – or when you are dealing with ######ual assault or harassment cases.
DeShields: Especially during tough budgetary times, finding appropriate resources for the teams is difficult, but very important. We have established a larger team made up of a faculty representative, human resources, office of equal opportunity, chief of staff, disability services, diversity center, and others but keep our core team to the senior director of counseling, police captain, senior conduct officer Cheap Pandora Beads, and a housing representative to make initial referrals to the team or to make initial determinations. This allows for an independent review that helps us avoid “group think” mentality. We are currently reviewing the size of the team to determine how to maximize our efforts.
Paula Bland: College of Colorado, Boulder has formed a group named the Behavioral Consultation Team to receive reports from any member of the university community: faculty, staff, or pupils. Members of the community are asked to report to the dean of college students any situation or concern where a student’s behavior indicates possible harm to self or others. The purpose of the team is to identify those pupils, develop a strategy to address the concerns, and assist the university student get back on track to succeed in the university community. Should the behavior warrant a separation from the college, either voluntarily or involuntarily Tiffany Ring, the team can also aid determine the conditions which would need to be met for the university student to return to campus.
A case manager is assigned the situation and begins an investigation. Currently, the director of residence existence is assigned as the case manager for all the cases involving pupils who live in a residence hall. While the director of residence lifestyle is the overall case manager, other residence existence staff will most likely be involved inside the intervention with the pupil. Usually the hall director will meet using the pupil, or the director of residence daily life and the hall director will meet together with all the university student.
If the behavior indicates an imminent threat but is not an emergency situation, the consultation team is pulled together to review the case and make a recommendation. If the behavior does not warrant an immediate meeting, the case is reviewed at a standing team meeting once a week. The consultation team reviews the report and any related information and determines the strategy to address the situation. The consultation team is composed of the dean of students, the assistant dean of pupils, two mental health professionals, legal counsel, police commander, director of disability services Pandora Leather Bracelet, director of residence daily life, director of college student carry out, and an administrative assistant. For case review, other staff or faculty can be invited as appropriate for the situation. For behavior regarding non-students, human resources has a similar team as appropriate for those types of cases.
Buck: I think that one of the issues continually in our minds is balancing our assistance and support for the college student with the needs of those around the pupil, who may be directly or indirectly impacted by their behavior. This is especially important when the situation occurs in a classroom environment, which then adds the variable of an instructor into the mix, who has a direct interest in the situation and a stake inside the outcome. Oftentimes, it is university student affairs staff that are best positioned to balance these sometimes competing interests because we have a certain degree of understanding and respect for all of those perspectives.
DeShields: I do agree that one of the points of a welfare team is to promote the safety and  well-being of those impacted by certain behaviors. The Welfare Team must also remember that one of the major underlying purposes of a team should be to help you the student rather than simply punish a student. We have used the text The Handbook for Campus Threat Assessment and Management Teams by Gene Deisinger, Marisa Randazzo, Daniel O’Neill, and Jenna Savage as a starting point for our initial discussions in planning our team. Are there other resources or best-practice institutions you all have found beneficial in your planning?
Klippenstein: I would echo those thoughts. We look for avenues to help college students, rather than  just putting them through the code of conduct process with a sanction in the end. It is about finding the balance to aid the college student. Our Whatup Team is composed of various directors from across campus and is designed to deal with low-level student issues, mostly related to retention issues, classroom/academic performance, issues at financial aid/advising, etc. Anyone on campus can send a note to our student success coordinator (SSC-retention) regarding a student who they believe is having trouble, such as not attending class, having trouble with financial aid and talking about leaving the institution, different behavior, etc. The SSC then brings the situation and name to the team of directors and finds out who can support: with a phone call, referral to a specific person for help, SSC intervention, etc. This is low-level review; if the situation causes the SSC some concern, they forward the information to me and I take it to the SBT so the appropriate personnel can address the behavior/threat. The goal is to find the best intervention and person to work using the pupil so they are successful.
Bland: I also agree that our objective is to balance the needs of the university student with all the needs of the community. We often hear from pupils, when getting a call from the case manager, who ask, “Am I in trouble?”. We communicate our care for the college student, first and foremost. Most of the situations are not generally a student conduct policy issue. Our situations include everything from eating disorders, suicidal ideation or attempts, mental health issues, or personality disorders. We have dealt with situations where pupils have threatened others and other situations where the behavior was not as overtly threatening. Some reports come in as “The student just didn’t seem to be himself, and there seems to be something that he’s going through.”
We have used the NaBita (National Behavioral Intervention Team Association) resources, and we will be doing some intensive training with their consultants this fall. We hope that this will help us continue to develop our processes and policies. One policy we are trying to develop is a non-voluntary withdrawal policy for the dean of college students to use. Do you all have such a policy, and have you developed criteria for its use?
DeShields: At Central Washington, we have a screening protocol that does allow us to take action, as deemed appropriate given the nature and severity of the behavior, including but not limited to referral for action under the university student code of carry out, including possible interim suspension and ultimate expulsion when warranted; contacting the student’s family or emergency contact(s), as permitted by university policy and FERPA; contacting law enforcement for intervention or consultation; and taking other precautions to protect the college student and/or potential victims. On our campus, if a student is suspended or expelled, the pupil has the right to appeal this to our appeals board.
Buck: Like Paula, we have made use of resources through NaBita, such as webinars and articles and a workshop through the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management. We also have met as a BIT for table-top scenarios and for after-action reviews about previous situations.
One sanction we will use to put the situation into a holding pattern is a temporary suspension. We will impose this with certain stipulations (i.e., restricted from housing facilities Cheap Pandora Bracelets, banned from campus) until we have a better sense of what may be going on – and also to prevent things from getting any worse.
At times, we will require that certain steps be taken before a pupil can return to the college or residential community, such as a full psychological assessment. A completed assessment does not constitute a “return to campus” pass; we will have our counseling center staff review the assessment and make recommendations as to how we should move forward with a particular pupil situation. We will typically also use behavioral agreements, which outline expectations for a particular student’s behavior, as well as follow-up steps to be taken for the remainder of the semester or year.