Hello friends and colleagues.  Welcome to the Summer 2008 NCHERM Newsletter.
The sections in this newsletter include:

1. An Update on NCHERM Happenings and Activities
2. 2008 Upcoming NCHERM Webinars and Seminars Announced
3. NCHERM Schedule of Campus Visits
4. Protocols Available from NCHERM
5. Free Article – “Stop the Madness” by Brett A. Sokolow, J.D.

View the Summer 2008 Newsletter in PDF format.

If you would prefer not to receive our quarterly newsletter, please e-mail us at NCHERM@aol.com and ask to be removed from the subscription list.

1) An Update on NCHERM Happenings and Activities

• NCHERM is pleased to welcome William L. “Bill” Kibler, Ph.D., as an NCHERM-Affiliated Consultant.  Rapid growth and client needs pushed us to find a consultant who is deeply skilled at crisis response, emergency management and incident command, and Bill brings that expertise and more to our organization.  Bill is a great complement to a team that already includes Brett Sokolow, Saunie Schuster and Scott Lewis.  Bill’s day job as Vice President for Student Affairs at Mississippi State University keeps him busy, but we will also keep him busy here at NCHERM.  For more information on Bill’s areas of expertise and Bill’s CV, please visit our Affiliated Consultants.

• The April 2008 issue of the Journal of College and University Law features an article entitled “The Liability of Colleges and Universities for Violent Campus Attacks,” authored by Brett A. Sokolow, J.D., W. Scott Lewis, J.D., James A. Keller, Esq., Audrey Daly, Esq.  If you don’t have a subscription, ask your legal counsel for a copy.  JCUL is distributed through the National Association of College and University Attorneys (www.nacua.org).

• The NCHERM Behavioral Intervention & Threat Assessment Institutes have been well attended.  Our first at Kean University in December 2007 had 85 attendees.  Our April 2008 event at Illinois State University had 115.  Since we introduced the NCHERM CUBIT (College and University Behavioral Intervention Team) Model in December 2007, more than 30 campuses have started to implement it, including a full system-wide implementation for all eight campuses of the Mississippi State system.

• NCHERM is now offering Behavioral Intervention Team training if your campus already has a BIT or CARE-type team in place.  Training is available in two-hour, four-hour, day-long and two-day blocks.  We offer training that focuses on basic skills as follows:

• Team Formation and Operation
• Team Protocol Development
• Intervention Best Practices
• Team Communication and Privacy Issues

 We also offer training that focuses on advanced skills, such as:

• Mental Health Law and Suicidality
• Threat Assessment
• Table Top Exercises
• Advanced Risk Mitigation and Integration Topics

2) 2008 Upcoming NCHERM Webinars and Seminars Announced

NCHERM is pleased to announce five upcoming events focusing on behavioral intervention teams and threat assessment on college campuses. 

We hope you will join us!  Details are posted on our Events page.

TWO UPCOMING INSTITUTES!

NCHERM Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment Institute

• May 15th & 16th at the University of Texas, San Antonio
• June 5th & 6th at Concordia University near Milwaukee, WI

NCHERM Institutes feature a faculty of six experts and a 100 page set of materials.

THREE UPCOMING SEMINARS!

Threat Assessment & Aggression Management Seminar featuring John Byrnes

• May 29th & 30th at the University of New Hampshire
• June 10th & 11th at Ohio Dominican University, Columbus, OH
• June 23rd & 24th at the University of San Diego

Here is what Bill Kibler, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Affairs at Mississippi State University, recently had to say about the NCHERM College and University Behavioral Intervention Team Model:

“I wholeheartedly recommend the work of Mr. Brett Sokolow of the NationalCenter for Higher Education Risk Management.  I have been in student affairs administration for over 30 years and have extensive experience with student behavioral issues, conduct issues, and crisis response.  There is currently great intensity of focus on these issues on college campuses around the country in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech and the Northern Illinois tragedies.  Brett Sokolow and the work of the NationalCenter for Higher Education Risk Management are truly a “breath of fresh air.”  Brett’s no-nonsense and well informed approach is exactly what is needed on our campuses today.  The College and University Behavioral Intervention Team (CUBIT) model that Brett has developed is excellent and is adaptable to any campus environment.  As a trainer, Brett is engaging, knowledgeable, patient, and very effective.  Brett is committed and passionate about promoting the best practices for the health and safety of our students and our campuses. He recently spent two days on our campus training our team in the CUBIT model.  Every person involved in the training was not only impressed with Brett and his presentation style, but were also highly complimentary of the CUBIT model and how well prepared they felt to begin implementation of the concepts they learned.  I sincerely applaud the excellent work of the NationalCenter for Higher Education Risk Management.”

We know you’ll value our expertise as much as your colleagues have.  For more information, please visit our Events page.

3) NCHERM Schedule of Campus Visits

View our 2008 Campus Tour Dates Schedule.  To schedule a visit, please contact Kate Halligan, NCHERM’s Director of Client Relationships at (610) 579-3725 or kate@ncherm.org. 

4)  Protocols Available from NCHERM

As many of you are aware, NCHERM custom-crafts protocols for our clients.  Some of these protocols are available for free, as with the Model Campus Sexual Assault Response Protocol (PDF) that is a free download.  We also sell some of our proprietary protocols if you would rather not reinvent the wheel by creating your own.  Here is a list of the protocols available from NCHERM:

• Model Campus Sexual Assault Response Protocol – Free download
• The NCHERM CUBIT (Behavioral Intervention Team) Model Protocol – available for preview & purchase
• The NCHERM Model Involuntary/Voluntary Medical Withdrawal Protocol – available for preview & purchase
• The NCHERM Model Student Suicide Intervention and Response Protocol – available for preview & purchase
• The NCHERM Model Student Organizations Risk Management Protocol – available for preview & purchase

To arrange a free preview of any of our protocols to assess their value to your campus, please contact Kate Halligan, NCHERM’s Director of Client Relationships at (610) 579-3725 or kate@ncherm.org. 

5) Free Article – “Stop the Madness” by Brett A. Sokolow, J.D.

As with every issue, we provide you with what we hope is a thought-provoking article.  Please use this link to access an article “Stop the Madness” (PDF) that Brett Sokolow recently wrote about the national response by college campuses to school shootings. 

© The NCHERM Newsletter. Summer 2008. All rights reserved.

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