Campus Community
Posted: Thursday, February 28, 2008‘Care Enough to Call’ Campaign Offers Guidance for Concerns
The nation collectively grieved for victims of the shooting at Northern Illinois University on February 14. Later that day, in an ongoing effort to maximize safety at Buffalo State, the Student Behavior and Risk Assessment Committee accelerated its launch of the “Care Enough to Call” awareness campaign.
Care Enough to Call encourages the campus to act on any concerns about student behavior and provides contact information for employees to respond appropriately to both emergency and non-emergency situations.
“The [Student Behavior and Risk Assessment] committee has been working on this campaign for some time now, and it’s particularly geared to address any uncertain feelings about safety issues—especially from a non-emergency standpoint,” said Charles Kenyon, dean of students. “We thought the NIU incident necessitated pushing up the planned launch by a week or two. Whenever you feel even the slightest bit uneasy, our message is this: ‘Care enough to call and let someone know. Don’t keep it to yourself.’”
The Care Enough to Call guide encourages contacting University Police at 878-6333 in all emergency situations. For non-emergency mental-health situations—encountering students with issues such as severe anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts—resources include the college Counseling Center at 878-4436 during normal business hours and Crisis Services Inc. at 834-3131 or University Police at 878-6333 at night and on weekends. The Dean of Students Office should be contacted at 878-4618 for non-emergency situations with disruptive student conduct. Finally, for situations where faculty and staff are unsure where to turn, they are asked to contact their department chair, associate dean, or immediate supervisor, or to reach out to the dean of students or University Police.
Additionally, the guide lists types of situations and resolutions, and also includes hours of operation for each service provider.
A second leg of the campaign—outreach to students—will take place later this semester. Kenyon is working with Deborah Silverman’s COM 308 Public Relations Writing service-learning class to develop communication materials for a student audience.
“Care Enough to Call is designed to help the community overcome hesitations,” said Kenyon. “It provides guidance on where to call to avoid delay on acting on one’s uncertainties. Likewise, we want the community to be assured that we’re taking steps to collect information and monitor students who might pose a risk to others.”
