A new campus-safety tool for colleges is being touted by some administrators and experts as a unique strategy for helping every higher-education institution understand and carry out best practices on issues like alcohol, hazing, and sexual violence.
The effort is part of the 32 National Campus Safety Initiative, which made its debut here on Thursday at George Mason University. The self-assessment tool is free for colleges, and involves a series of confidential surveys that cover nine "focus areas." The alcohol-and-other-drugs survey asks, for instance, whether parents are notified when a student violates a college’s alcohol policies, and whether campus police departments collaborate with local law enforcement in combating drunken driving.
Once at least 100 colleges have completed the assessments, aggregate data will be compiled from the responses, divided up by institutional size and type, and published on the project’s website as a comparison tool for colleges, as well as students and parents.
The VTV Family Outreach Foundation, established in the aftermath of the2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, has sponsored the effort, which began to take shape three years ago. A team of 10 campus-safety and legal experts volunteered dozens of hours to work on the project.
At first a rating system was planned, but that idea was dropped in favor of an approach centered on helping colleges, said Peter F. Lake, a law professor at Stetson University and chairman of the council that developed the surveys.
Officials at several colleges that participated in a pilot of the program say the tool makes a lot of sense. They called it relatively easy to use, free, and helpful. If a college signs up, its staff members in the relevant safety fields — such as an alcohol-abuse counselor or the police chief — complete that particular survey. A senior administrator oversees the effort.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/New-Campus-Safety-Assessment/232377