RSS
|
Mobile
|
Daily Emails
|
We Twitter
| Make us your home page
Following tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois universities, Texas A&M University administrators are trying to drill a new mantra into the heads of everyone on campus.
Tell somebody.
Perhaps someone witnessed a student on campus who was yelling at a professor. Or maybe that person saw someone -- faculty, staff or student -- being disruptive.
There are hundreds of scenarios that could threaten the safety of Aggieland, said Cynthia Hernandez, special assistant to the vice president for student affairs and member of a newly created crisis team. The important thing, she said, is that they are reported.
"The Interim Special Situations Team is making sure people are communicating about behaviors that might be disruptive or that people might find just a little bit concerning, if you will," Hernandez said. "I'd definitely say the incidents at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois have prompted the university to really look at formalizing those lines of communication."
This week, Texas A&M announced the creation of the team to address and respond to potential problems and to improve communication across the campus about such incidents .
Similar teams are forming across the country in response to the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois. Hernandez said A&M's team is one of the only groups that includes a review of suspicious behavior from faculty and staff members.
At A&M, the nine-person team -- given an "interim" label because its structure still is evolving, Hernandez said -- meets regularly but can be convened at any time by any member to respond to situations. Members were selected for their expertise but are representative of a cross-section of the university, which enhances communication, Hernandez said.
Though the team has been meeting since February, it was just this week that A&M released three hot-line numbers -- one each for faculty, students and staff -- for people to report suspicious or disruptive behavior on campus.
Concerns are being directed to three A&M administrators: Director of Student Life Carol Binzer, Associate Dean of Faculties Antonio Cepeda-Benito and Associate Director of Human Resources Anna Satterfield. They are taking reports on students, faculty and staff, respectively.
"I think that the special situations team goes with this campaign of 'tell somebody,'" Hernandez said, explaining that the program started in the public schools. "It might be that the matter is investigated and resolved pretty quickly and easily. Or maybe it's something that ends up really helping that student, faculty or staff member."
There is no standard process for investigating the reports, Hernandez said, explaining that each would be dealt with individually. As with any reporting system, she said, sanctions could result if officials determine there has been a violation of university rules.
As of Thursday, no reports had been filed online, Hernandez said. It was unclear whether any had been made by phone.
Binzer said she routinely gets calls about student issues and concerns from students, faculty, staff and parents because of her role at A&M. But she noted that she had not received anything specifically related to a student's concerning behavior since the hot lines were launched.
"We look forward to the word getting out broadly about what to do if there is a student or students' behavior about which someone is concerned, since those reports or intuitions are sometimes pieces of a puzzle that allow us to offer support to a student who may be struggling for one reason or another in true Aggie fashion," Binzer said.
Both Cepeda-Benito and Satterfield referred questions about the data to Hernandez.
Hernandez said the trio regularly hears from concerned callers simply because of the nature of their jobs. That makes it hard to tell if any calls were prompted by the recent announcement about the team and the hot lines, she said.
Hernandez said the importance of communication was realized after the massacre at Virginia Tech more than a year ago. It was only after the tragedy that university officials discovered that various people on campus had been concerned about gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who killed himself after killing dozens of others on campus over a two-hour period.
"Pockets of the university had heard about some disturbing behavior concerning Mr. Cho, but they weren't sharing that information," Hernandez said. "Looking at an individual with one incident is a lot different than looking at that individual with several incidents across campus."
• Holly Huffman's e-mail address is holly.huffman@theeagle.com.
