National Institutes on Responding to Campus Sexual Misconduct

For Immediate Release

May 20, 2010 – Malvern, PA – The National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM), and College Student Educators International (ACPA) announce their collaborative sponsorship of three national Institutes on Responding to Campus Sexual Misconduct to be held in July of 2010 at sites on the East Coast, in the Midwest and on the West Coast.

Today, colleges and universities are facing an unprecedented onslaught of litigation, fierce media coverage and deeper scrutiny through government investigations. Sometimes, the allegations and media coverage are unfair, and sometimes, colleges and universities could do a better job in addressing campus sexual misconduct. These Institutes are about rising to the challenge, learning better methods, and improving campus approaches. These landmark two-day Institutes are designed to provide comprehensive training for college and university administrators, hearing boards, conduct administrators, appeals officers, sexual harassment grievance officers, and legal counsel.

NCHERM has been a national leader for ten years on issues of campus sexual misconduct. These Institutes are designed to elevate the dialogue across the country about how colleges and universities can more effectively respond to campus sexual misconduct, including harassment and sexual assault. NCHERM Managing Partner Brett A. Sokolow, Esq., explained, “We have presented standing-room-only sessions on campus sexual misconduct at a number of conferences over the past year, and the need for deeper and more comprehensive training is clear. We wanted to provide our colleagues in higher education with a thorough overview of the legal and procedural issues that campuses are facing today. A two-day Institute will allow us to really take this issue to a new level of national competence, excellence and accountability.”

Vernon A. Wall, Director of Educational Programs & Publications at ACPA, said, "ACPA is proud to partner with NCHERM in providing this outstanding resource for campus administrators and policy makers who are ready to expand the dialogue around campus sexual misconduct and provide timely and effective interventions for the campus community."

Three of the foremost, nationally-known experts on this subject, NCHERM partners Brett A. Sokolow, Saundra K. Schuster and W. Scott Lewis, will serve as Institute Faculty. The Institutes have been designed to provide each attendee with the following five learning outcomes:


· Gain an understanding of the Title IX, negligence law, FERPA and Clery Act-based legal framework that provides the underpinning of effective and compliant campus sexual misconduct remedial structures;

· Comprehensively understand the best practices for campus sexual misconduct policy development;

· Learn the essential elements and recommended best practices for conduct procedures and protocols on sexual misconduct;

· Gain knowledge of how to effectively manage the conduct proceedings in sexual misconduct cases from intake to investigation to appeal;

· Explore the substance of what training should be provided to hearing panels for these types of challenging hearings.

All three institutes will be held during the month of July. Providing this training opportunity during the summer gives administrators time to focus, and allows institutions to be well prepared as they enter the fall term.

The Institutes will be held at:

-- Drew University in Madison, NJ on July 20th and 21st;

-- Loyola University Chicago on July 26th and 27th;

-- Stanford University on July 29th and 30th

NCHERM will provide a follow-up series of sexual misconduct investigation training events for administrators and campus law enforcement throughout the 2010 fall semester.

For more information, please visit www.ncherm.org or contact NCHERM Client Relations Coordinator Samantha Dutill at (610) 993-0229 or Samantha@ncherm.org

Threat Assessment -- NaBITA Spring 2010 Newsletter Now Available

Hello RiskMaBlog Readers,

The National Behavioral Intervention Team Association (NaBITA) Spring 2010 Newsletter has been published. Annual Conference Details are included.

http://www.nabita.org/nabita_newsletter_template_single_article_FINAL_000.html

Also, please note that the Virginia Tech Demonstration Project Book has been released publicly. You can download it at http://www.police.vt.edu/VTPD_v2.1/assets/documents/VT_ThreatAssessment09.pdf

It is worth a read.

Regards,

Brett A. Sokolow, Esq.
Managing Partner, NCHERM
www.ncherm.org
brett@ncherm.org

Green Dot Institute in Tennessee

Colleagues,



The Green Dot Institute is coming to Tennessee! The Green Dot primary prevention initiative is a new way of thinking about and doing violence prevention. Green Dot is about culture change – harnessing the power of individual choices to shift our current norms. It was designed by integrating some of the best research on social change, diffusion of innovation, communication, persuasion, bystander intervention, and perpetrator patterns into a program that makes practical sense.



The Institute will feature Green Dot author Dr. Dorothy J. Edwards of the University of Kentucky. Dr. Edwards and the Green Dot training team will train participants on launching a Green Dot movement in their communities, agencies and universities. Green Dot Institute participants will be certified to implement both phases of the Green Dot curriculum (Phase 1: Green Dot Persuasive Speech; Phase II: Green Dot Bystander Training). The training will include a comprehensive review of the philosophy, research-base, and curriculum of Green Dot.

When: June 7-8 & June 10-11, 2010. 9:30am-5:00pm.
Where: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Cost:

Fee breakdown: $735
Curriculum manual, support materials & sample participant workbook: $75

Lunch/breaks…$15/day…$60

Registration fee…$600
Registration cut-off date: May 21, 2010
Registration form: See below


For more information, including payment, registration, and hotels, please see http://www.vanderbilt.edu/WomensCenter/institute/



Please share this announcement with anyone who might be interested. For more information about Green Dot, including other upcoming trainings, please visit http://www.uky.edu/StudentAffairs/VIPCenter/index.html



With questions, please contact:

Anna Guest-Jelley, Associate Director

Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center

Office of the Dean of Students

Vanderbilt University

Phone: (615) 322-4843
Fax: (615) 343-0940

Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center



Office Location:

Franklin House, 316 West Side Row



Mailing Address:

VU Station B #351513

2301 Vanderbilt Place

Nashville, TN 37235

Targeted Violence in Higher Education Study

U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of Education and Federal Bureau of Investigation to Jointly Release Findings of New Study of Targeted Violence Affecting U.S. Institutions of Higher Education


The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation jointly released a study of targeted violence incidents on U.S. campuses of higher learning. The study and its findings will be available on each of the agencies' Web sites: http://www.secretservice.gov/, http://www.ed.gov, and http://www.fbi.gov/.



In response to the Virginia Tech incident on April 16, 2007, former Cabinet Secretaries Michael Leavitt and Margaret Spellings, and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales submitted a Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy dated June 13, 2007. The report included a recommendation that the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Bureau of Investigation explore the issue of violence at institutions of higher education. Accordingly, the three agencies initiated a collaborative effort, the goal of which was to understand the scope of the problem of targeted violence at these institutions in the United States.



In total, 272 incidents were identified through a comprehensive search of more than 115,000 results in open-source reporting from 1900 to 2008. The findings are pertinent and far-reaching, and the incidents studied include all forms of targeted violence, ranging from domestic violence to serial killers.


The study can also be viewed at: http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus-attacks.pdf.

Editor's Note: For questions concerning the study or its findings, contact the U.S. Secret Service Office of Government and Public Affairs at 202-406-5708, the Department of Education Office of Public Affairs at 202-401-1576, or the FBI Office of Public Affairs at 202-324-3691.

Ten Years After Columbine

Colleagues,

You may find this article of interest. http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1984

Regards,

Brett Sokolow, Esq.

New Study of Targeted Violence in Higher Education

New Study of Targeted Violence Affecting U.S. Institutions of Higher Education Released

U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of Education, and Federal Bureau of Investigation Collaborate on Joint Effort

On Friday, April 16, 2010, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will release a study of targeted violence incidents on U.S. campuses of higher learning.

The June 2007 Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy included a recommendation that the Secret Service, Department of Education, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation explore the issue of violence at institutions of higher education. This collaborative effort examines the scope of the problem of targeted violence at U.S. institutions.

In total, 272 incidents were identified through a comprehensive search of more than 115,000 results in open-source reporting from 1900 to 2008. The incidents studied include various forms of targeted violence, ranging from domestic violence to mass murder. The findings should be useful for campus safety professionals charged with identifying, assessing, and managing violent risk at institutions of higher education.

The full report is available online at http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac/CampusAttacks041610.pdf

Campus Sexual Assault -- More from the Center for Public Integrity

http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/entry/2030/