University of Northern Iowa Critical Incident Team and Assessment and Consultation Team Charge

Critical Incidents and Personal Threats Assistance

Definitions

Critical Incidents:

Critical incidents can include situations such as threats or acts of violence, major demonstrations or riots, floods, major fires, tornadoes, airplane crashes or train derailments, major chemical spills, hostage situations, sniper activity, building collapse or explosion, bomb threats, deadly disease and food contamination occurring within or near the university community.

Personal Threat Assistance -- Critical Incident Response Teams:

A critical incident response team is an administrative vehicle to help ensure cooperation across various administrative domains of the university. It focuses on preventing unsafe situations from occurring whenever possible. It is also the responsibility of the critical incident response team to try to limit or restrict unsafe situations after they have occurred or started.

College campuses in the U.S. and Canada have developed critical incident response/threat assessment teams to identify and address possible acts of violence or other critical incidents before they occur. This is more effective on a personal and financial level than just reacting after the fact.

The purpose of critical incident response teams is to integrate university services, such as police, counseling services, student affairs, university communication, human resources, facilities, environmental health and safety, legal counsel and academic affairs, into a functional unit providing more timely, comprehensive and accessible support services and information sharing before or during a wide variety of critical incidents.

Critical incident response teams use a standard approach to assist university police in assessing the threat potential of individuals exhibiting threatening behavior. A critical incident response team also provides consultation to university departments and units regarding dealing with threatening behavior.

UNI approach

UNI's Critical Incident Team (CIT) was established in 2007 by UNI President Benjamin Allen and reports directly to the president. This group also serves as the Assessment and Consultation Team for concerns regarding faculty, staff and campus guests/visitors. (Note: The assessment and consultation team for students is a separate group, with representation to the CIT).

UNI departments/offices represented on the CIT/ACT:

Compliance and Equity Management 273-2846
Counseling Center 273-2676
Dean of Students 273-2332
Executive Vice President and Provost 273-2517
Human Resource Services 273-2423
Information Technology (if required) 273-7779
Marketing & Public Relations 273-2761
Residence 273-2333
Risk Management 273-6827
Student Health Clinic 273-7224
University Counsel 273-3241
University Police 273-2712
University Safety Officer/Facilities Services 273-2582
Vice President for Administration & Financial Services 273-2382

What does UNI CIT do?

The team meets monthly (and when called upon) to address the following areas:

1. To assess campus needs for information, education, and training as it pertains to campus safety and emergency response.
2. To provide information, workshops and resources for faculty, staff and students on campus policies, procedures and information related to overall safety and emergency response. This may be provided by securing trained personnel from within or outside UNI, as appropriate.
3. To make recommendations to the appropriate office/individual regarding issues of safety/security brought to the attention of the committee, to try to ensure that an adequate response is developed.
4. To serve as the Assessment and Consultation Team for faculty, staff, guests and visitors. The team proactively reviews, assesses and responds to incidents of high-risk mental health, disciplinary or criminal behavior that may pose danger to self or others; and makes recommendations or takes actions to try to ensure that concerns are met and addressed.
5. To engage in follow up of individual behaviors as necessary, until such time it is determined that concern is no longer required.