Van Brunt's Ending Campus Violence book reviewed in Security Management Magazine

This timely and comprehensive study of school and campus violence is expertly compiled into a multidisciplinary summary that is understandable for anyone involved with campus safety. The work focuses on understanding the behavioral warning signs associated with violence and aggression, as well as the strategies recommended for diverting people with these signs from the pathways leading to violence. Threat assessment teams are discussed in detail. While the book offers no original breakthroughs, it is an excellent summary of strategies currently used in the field.

Click here to read the full review.

The NCHERM Group Partners respond to recent press coverage

The Blogosphere and Twitterverse are alight today with twisted truths. Let’s set a few things straight.

Click here to read the full response.

The NCHERM Group to Indemnify Colleges on Sexual Misconduct Claims

It is clear from recent press accounts that higher education is at a crisis point with sexual misconduct cases.  Administrators report that they are drowning in caseloads.  Students and alumni continue to express dissatisfaction in a variety of ways.  The hearing process is under attack from those who think that campus panels are poorly trained and simply not up to the task of addressing sexual misconduct. The issue of campus sexual misconduct appears to have become a pressure cooker that is about to explode.  More and more campuses have realized that what they are doing isn't working and they are turning to The NCHERM Group for help.

In response, The NCHERM Group recently announced its new Resolution Services, allowing campuses to put difficult sexual misconduct cases into the hands of objective, trained and respected experts.  The NCHERM Group President, Brett A. Sokolow, Esq., stated that he is confident in the ability of his team to resolve the toughest cases, and he's willing to indemnify those campuses that entrust their sexual misconduct complaints to his firm.

Click here to read the official press release.

"College backlash and a difficult balancing act on sex assault" on Philly.com quotes Sokolow

Brett Sokolow, director of the Association of Title IX Administrators, bluntly warned in a newsletter this spring that some male students may have been improperly penalized.

"Some boards and panels still can't tell the difference between drunk sex and a policy violation," he wrote. "We are making Title IX plaintiffs out of these men."

"One way or another, schools are going to professionalize it," said Brett Sokolow, president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, based in Malvern. "They'll either do it themselves or more and more, they'll outsource it to firms like ours or to judges."

Sokolow said he has recommended for years that colleges exclude students from judicial boards in sexual-misconduct cases. Inclusion of students deters some victims from coming forward, he said.

Click here to read the full article.

Philly.com quotes Sokolow in "Who should judge campus cases?"

"One way or another, schools are going to professionalize it," said Brett Sokolow, president of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, based in Malvern. "They'll either do it themselves or more and more, they'll outsource it to firms like ours or to judges."

Sokolow said he has recommended for years that colleges exclude students from judicial boards in sexual-misconduct cases. Inclusion of students deters some victims from coming forward, he said.

Click here to read the full article.

Schuster quoted in Campus Security Report's "Understand what laws apply when responding to issues involving animals on campus"

Saundra Schuster, a partner with The NCHERM Group, LLC (formerly the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management), explained the importance of first knowing the difference between “service” and “assistance” or emotional support/therapy animals under the law.

“Under Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, colleges and universities must modify all policies, practices or procedures to permit the use of a service animal by an individual with a qualifying disability,” Schuster said. “However, that nexus between the training and the disability must be present.”

Click here to read the full article.