This week’s #SAchat is going to be co-hosted by the Great Lakes Association of Colleges and Universities Housing Officers Campus Safety and Crisis Management committee and the ACPA Campus Safety and Emergency Preparedness Task Force. Below are answers from Rachel Aho, ACPA CSEP Vice-Chair of Professional Development and Ryan Bye, GLACUHO CSCM committee member.
What are some goals of the committee/task force?
RA: The ACPA Task Force for Campus Safety and Emergency Preparedness (CSEP) was formed as a means to advance and respond to the need for formalized conversations around crisis response, campus protocol, and emergency management on campuses across the country. Since our formation in 2010, our group has worked to become an informed voice on campus safety and emergency preparedness as these issues intersect with student affairs and the strategic objectives of ACPA. Our group’s main goals and objectives are and continue to be: 1) contributing to knowledge and best practices 2) providing practical skills and 3) offering professional development opportunities around topics of campus safety and emergency preparedness.
Our efforts to meet these goals are multi-faceted and include research, convention opportunities, and of course in this case, partnering with organizations such as GLACUHO to advance specific conversations around this topic. Additional information about our task force can be found here: http://www.acpa.nche.edu/tfcsep
RB: At the annual GLACUHO winter meeting, also known as Camp T, a group of us came together to form this years Campus Safety and Crisis Management (CSCM) committee. We were told that our committee was formed at a pivotal time in higher education after the Virginia Tech tragedy as a way to build upon the knowledge that is campus safety and crisis management. Then we were charged to figure out where our committee belonged with the current context. Where did we see campus safety going? How could we broaden the knowledge? Where did our committee fit in the larger organization?
At Camp T we were able to come up with several goals for the year. We split up into the traditional sub-committees and grouped-up based on interest and need. This year the contemporary issue for GLACUHO is Spirituality in our campus housing communities and the CSCM committee has adopted that as one of the central theme in our work and goals. As a committee we hope to have several articles, conference sessions, and webinars. Ultimately, our goal is to help keep the conversation going in regard to the many facets of campus safety and crisis management.
Why did you want to be on this committee/task force?
RA: In higher education and residence life, we are no stranger to campus crises. Whether we are hearing of a tragedy on the latest news cycle, training staff about campus policies and protocol, or responding to an incident ourselves, campus safety and emergency management affects us all. Knowing that this topic will always be a part of my career in some way and feeling strongly that we forget all too quickly the lessons learned following moments of crisis I found value in joining a group that was built on the idea of continuing conversations and advancing knowledge about campus safety and emergency preparedness.
When I initially joined the CSEP task force I wanted to continue conversations from my graduate practicum experience in Risk Management and Emergency Preparedness, and increase my comfort around topics of university-level crisis planning and response. I was also looking for a leadership experience at the national level and had the opportunity to join our directorate early which helped me to gain an understanding of ACPA and national organization structures and operations. Since joining the task force and advancing in my career, I continue to enjoy these conversations, leadership experiences, and find our work beneficial as current issues, legal requirements, and situations impact administrators at all levels and continue to evolve.
RB: First and foremost because this is a topic that I believe needs further development in our field. I think we have functional areas in the field that believe they are excellent at dealing with campus safety and crisis management concerns, those that deal with it more often than others, and those that are quasi-aware those concerns exist on campus. Than of course we have everything in between. These concerns are very real, the training is necessary (and often lacking across functional areas), and it is all ever changing.
Secondly, I am very passionate about student conduct and see that as a central part of my career in higher education. Crisis and campus safety concerns often lead to students going through the conduct process and so it is very important for me to have a deeper understanding of this topic and what better way than a regional committee!
What are some current issues in regard to campus safety?
RA: Currently, I think there’s a lot of conversation happening around conceal and carry laws, the impact of the Campus SaVE Act, and student mental health response on campuses across the country. Add these to already ongoing conversations about natural disaster planning, the legalization/decriminalization of marijuana, behavioral assessment team structures and you can see why campus administrators may feel a heightened sense of urgency around these issues as they are both timely, evolving, and essential to address.
RB: One major issue is behavioral intervention teams/early alert systems. While this is something that has been addressed for the past few years it is not necessarily something we see across the board yet. There are Student Affairs professionals who are completely oblivious to this idea. Campus size, culture, and resources should inform how these look at institution but institutions must continue towards building a system in which students in crisis can be identified and assisted.
There is also mental health and growing diversity, which I will address later on because I think those two topics have more of a “big-picture” impact on how we talk about safety and crisis. Student affairs administrators’ will be addressing mental health and growing diverse student populations for a long time coming. I know, broad right? I believe that these encompassing topics will be the foundation of major campus safety and crisis management issues for the next decade or few decades. With the increasing awareness of mental health, medication, and varying opinions on how to address this topic we are already seeing a gamut of approaches and philosophies on how to address this on our campuses.
The growing diversity on campuses across the nation has the potential to encompass many different types of safety and crisis management concerns. One area that I believe institutions have not given much thought about is, spirituality, which is another reason I believe so strongly in the work the CSCM committee is doing this year. Spirituality informs a large part of our student’s life and their development – yet many professionals are ill equipped to talk with students about it.
One last one – training. We cannot continue training in a 1980s or even 90s mentality. Our training must advance. Who is being trained needs to be re-evaluated. The 1994 emergency protocol flip chart in the Chemistry lab needs to be supplemented with newer tools.
Why is the topic of campus safety important to administrators?
RA: Campus safety and emergency preparedness are necessary parts of our roles in student affairs, particularly for those of us in residence life as we often have on-call structures that require us to be first-responders both during the day and after hours. Because of the inevitable emergency, crisis, or phone call in the middle of the night, it’s prudent for campus administrators to prepare for a response, and in fact, I’d argue it’s our responsibility to do so. With changing laws, increases in student issues, and unpredictable weather often impacting our institutions, campus safety should not be left to chance, but rather kept on the forefront of our minds when planning, preparing, and responding.
RB: As we see our students, policies, and institutions change it is going to continue to be important that we as student affairs administrators have the training to respond to emergencies. We have to be prepared for an emergency – whatever your function is at an institution of higher education – everyone plays a role in keeping our communities safe.
