When Faculty or Staff Display Concerning Behavior
Dear Faculty Relations: I have noticed a change in behavior from one of the faculty in my department. Lately, they just don鈥檛 seem like themselves and most recently, they had an outburst in our department-wide meeting and started yelling at their colleagues unprovoked. What resources are available to me to address this situation? 鈥擟oncerned About Behavior
Dear Concerned About Behavior: The University of Colorado Boulder prioritizes the health and safety of our students, employees, and other community members at all times. We want to protect our community against harm to themselves or others. In support of this priority, 小黄书 Boulder has a Campus Violence Policy and has two threat assessment protocols that focus on students and employees, respectively.
The employee assessment protocol is managed by the campus Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT). The BIT provides the university community with accessible avenues for reporting concerning behavior and reviews collected information, identifying and addressing the needs of the individuals who demonstrate concerning behaviors, may be in distress, or may threaten the safety of the campus.鈥
BIT meets on a case-by-case basis to strategize how best to handle situations posed by an employee who is making threats of violence to self or others, who has acted violently during the course of their employment, or who is behaving in ways that are threatening, menacing or out of character. BIT is designed to address reasonable concerns raised by coworkers, supervisors, or others in a manner that is appropriate to the situation. BIT is also designed to protect the interests of the employee to ensure that actions taken to address a potential threat are based upon a reasonable threat assessment and not upon unreasonable fears or misinformation.
You should consider completing the 鈥淐oncerning Incident Referral Form鈥 found on the BIT website. The BIT can assess the information provided and figure out the best way to support the employee of concern moving forward.听
Written by Taylor Craven, Employee Relations Consultant and Leave Program Manager, Employee Relations, University of Colorado Boulder, January 2022.
Updated October 2024: Montelleo D. Hobley, Jr. is the new Director of Threat Assessment in the Division of Public Safety.听
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