**Please note that all workshops are designed as 90-minute presentations, but one-hour and extended versions can be done for each topic**

BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION AND THREAT ASSESSMENT

• Classroom Management: Preventing and Responding to Disruptive Students In and Out of The Classroom
• BIT for Faculty
• One and Two Day CUBIT trainings
• Threat Assessment Training 

CAMPUS CONDUCT TRAINING

• Judicial Training
• Investigation Training (Civil Rights)
• Best Practices for Sexual Misconduct Judicial Procedures/Adjudication

STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH

• Student Suicide: What College and University Administrators Need to Know About the Law and Best Practices
• Legal Issues for Campus Counselors and Therapists
• Students with Disabilities & Emotional Problems—Best Practices for Tough Times
• Best Practices for Campus Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment

TRAINING FOR ATHLETICS

• Risk Management Strategies for Student Organizations
• Hazing Risk Management
• Sexual Assault/Harassment Training for High-Risk Populations

TRAINING FOR FRATERNITY/SORORITY MEMBERS

• Risk Management Strategies for Student Organizations
• Hazing Risk Management
• Sexual Assault/Harassment Training for High-Risk Populations

WORKSHOPS FOR FACULTY

• The Disruptive Student – A Training For Faculty And/Or Staff presented by Brett Sokolow
• Title IX Sexual Harassment Compliance Workshop
• Faculty Consensual Relationships Policy Development
• Students with Disabilities & Emotional Problems—Best Practices for Tough Times
• Investigation Training (Civil Rights)
• Classroom Management: Preventing and Responding to Disruptive Students In and Out of The Classroom – Presented by W. Scott Lewis J.D.
• Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) Training for Faculty

STUDENT AFFAIRS RISK MANAGEMENT

• Search & Seizure on Campus:  A Law and Policy Best Practices Update
• Criminal Background Checks for Students and Staff: A Law & Policy Update
• Title IX Sexual Harassment Compliance Workshop
• Risk Management Strategies for Student Organizations
• Hazing Risk Management
• Changing the Drinking Culture of the College Campus
• Students with Disabilities & Emotional Problems—Best Practices for Tough Times
• Clery Act Compliance—Is Your Campus Reporting Crime Accurately?
• Legislation and Litigation Update
• Code of Conduct Revision
• Risk Management Strategies for Student and Judicial Affairs
• Investigation Training (Civil Rights)
• Sexual Assault Response – Training for RAs and Other Key Personnel
• MyFace, Spacebook and Other Issues of Technology for Students
• Best Practices for Campus Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment

CAMPUS SEXUAL MISCONDUCT/SEXUAL HARASSMENT

• Investigation Training (Civil Rights)
• Title IX Sexual Harassment Compliance Workshop
• Sexual Assault Response – Training for RAs and Other Key Personnel
• Faculty Consensual Relationships Policy Development
• Best Practices for Responding to Campus Sexual Violence
• Best Practices for Campus Sexual Misconduct Policy
• Best Practices for Sexual Misconduct Judicial Procedures/Adjudication

TRAINING FOR RESIDENTIAL LIFE

• Students with Disabilities & Emotional Problems—Best Practices for Tough Times
• Sexual Assault Response – Training for RAs and Other Key Personnel
• MyFace, Spacebook and Other Issues of Technology for Students
• The Disruptive Student – A Training for Faculty or Staff

TRAINING FOR CAMPUS LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Search & Seizure on Campus:  A Law and Policy Best Practices Update
• Criminal Background Checks for Students and Staff: A Law & Policy Update
• Clery Act Compliance—Is Your Campus Reporting Crime Accurately?
• Risk Management Training for Campus Law Enforcement Personnel

PREVENTION AND RISK REDUCTION

• You Know Your Stuff, But Can You Connect?  A Facilitation Training For Peer Educators
• Men Educating Men:  A Training For Male Peer Educators
• Content Training For Peer Educators
• Strategic Programming
• Student-on-Student Sexual Misconduct Prevention Program
• Problem Drinking Risk Reduction Program for Students
• Hazing Risk Reduction Program for Students
• Bystander Intervention Empowerment Training

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

One and Two Day CUBIT Training

A one-day training on the CUBIT model can be either a basic or advanced training. The basic training day focuses on ideal team formats, membership and operation.  How teams receive and process reports will be addressed, as well as risk classification and intervention techniques.  We'll look at on-call mechanisms, recordkeeping, privacy, confidentiality and communication challenges, with a briefing on FERPA, HIPAA and counselor confidentiality. The advanced training day looks at team integration with other campus risk mitigation strategies, such as admissions screening, criminal background checks, and CIRT/EMT coordination. We'll explore more effective partnerships and communication with local agencies and resources, and a deeper exploration of the mental health and disability issues that often challenge teams.  We will explore the role of ADA/504 in involuntary medical withdrawals, and how to make direct threat determinations.  This training will also examine the role of teams in coordinating campus behavioral contracts, no contact orders and persona non grata orders as well as the need for longitudinal tracking of students by teams, follow-up and a mechanism for minding the gaps.Two-Day trainings will combine these two trainings, or allow you to combine the advanced training with a threat assessment training for a two-day advanced curriculum.

Threat Assessment Training 

This is a comprehensive training on the NCHERM Threat Assessment Tool.  It can be done in 2 hour, half-day and full-day variants.  Participants will learn how to use tool, with four measures of mental health related risk, five generalized risk measures and nine measures for aggression.  With this tool, teams can accurately assess the potential for harm to self, harm to others, and harm to facilities/operations/reputation.  Once the tool is explained, participants will work through 15 scenarios to assess the risks of each, and then to strategically deploy intervention tools to address those risks.

Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) Training for Faculty

Campuses around the country are forming behavioral intervention teams and getting the word out to faculty and staff on the critical need to report concerning behavior.  While we offer a workshop on how faculty should respond to concerning behavior, this workshop is specifically for faculty on what they should report to their behavioral intervention team, when and how.  Faculty are "sensors" for purposes of campus threat assessment, and understanding the function of a sensor as an early warning mechanism is the purpose of this training.  We cannot simply expect a culture of reporting to exist, we have to foster it.  Faculty need to understand their role in the process, how much detail to provide, how much subjective "guesswork" to include, what happens when the team receives a report, what feedback will be given to the reporter, and what will remain confidential.  We need to engender a culture that passes along all concerning behavior that reaches the level of a "red flag."  What is a "red flag"?  This session will provide the answer, along with advice not to minimize the seriousness of incidents, to report when in doubt, so that we err on the side of caution.  Who knows what else is being reported to the team about the same student by other members of the community?  What may seem minor to one faculty member might seem like an avalanche when the team puts all of the pieces of the puzzle together.  This training incorporates details from your campus behavioral intervention team for seamless integration and enhanced reporting.

Classroom Management: Preventing and Responding to Disruptive Students In and Out of The Classroom

Presented by W. Scott Lewis, J.D.

Over the last ten years, there has been an increase in the number and severity of behavioral incidents in the classrooms and on campuses. More and more, it is incumbent upon instructors to intervene in the classroom to address behaviors that can interfere with teaching and learning. Using a combination of lecture and case studies taken from actual incidents, this workshop will provide instructors with tools to appropriately address these behaviors. Participants will be provided with skills to prevent disruptive behaviors, to react to them, and tips on how to enhance their own campus procedures to address abhorrent behaviors.

Length:   One hour; two hour; half day; full day and two day versions

Learning Outcomes:

Participants will:

• Gain a perspective on trends in behaviors on higher education campuses
• Gain a perspective on the realities of campus responses to incidents of classroom disruption
• Be able to utilize pedagogical methods and teaching strategies to reduce the probability of disruptive behaviors
• Be able to develop and/or utilize individualized syllabus statements for class management
• Be able to appropriately respond to disruptive behaviors in and out of the classroom
• Be able to assist their home campuses in policy development in the area of classroom management

 Workshop Outline:

Workshop Outline:

I. Introductions

a. Participant Question Submission

II. College and University Behavioral Trends

III. Campus Policy analysis

a. Sample policies

IV. Analyzing behaviors

a. Disruptive behaviors

b. Distress behaviors

V. Preventive Measures

a. Syllabus statements

b. Pedagogical methods

VI. Reactive Measures

a. Addressing behaviors in the classroom

b. Addressing behaviors outside the classroom

c. Appropriate intervention techniques

VII. Case Studies

VIII. Question and Answer

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The Disruptive Student – A Training For Faculty And/Or Staff

Presented by Brett Sokolow

Whether in the classroom or the residence hall, more and more campus faculty and staff members report varying levels of behavior by students this is disrupting the academic environment.  For some, it’s student wearing hats, obscene t-shirts, skirts too short, or shorts pulled too low.  For others sleeping in class or buffoonery are disruptive.  For others it’s cellphones, texting and IMs.  For others, it’s dark imagery and threatening language in classroom assignments or discussions or students who are worrying their hallmates with eating disorders, depression or threats of suicide.  This workshop is a discussion of best practices for managing a wide range of disruptive behavior.  Should you confront it?  Where?  When?  How do you confront it?  Should police be called?  The counseling center?  What if I am the target of a threat or retaliation?  How much is too much, and what are the thresholds for removing students from class?  How can students be dismissed from classes or housing?  What are appropriate statements for syllabi and housing contracts?

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You Know Your Stuff, But Can You Connect?  A Facilitation Training for Peer Educators

Peer education is a powerful tool for prevention and risk reduction.  Many campuses use peer education to great effect.  Peer education is most effective when the training provided to peer educators is of high quality.  Two of the toughest skills for peer educators to master are the art of facilitating dialogue, and how to answer student questions creatively and accurately.  This workshop will provide you with training from one of the most skilled facilitators addressing high risk student health and safety issues on college campuses today.  Brett has faced the toughest questions students have, and has learned what answers provide the best educational impact.  He has faced tough facilitations, heckling, disinterested students and defensive students.  He is expert at creating connections with audiences, and opening men and women to dialogue on sensitive issues.  In this workshop, he will share his strategies for success with you.

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Men Educating Men:  A Training for Male Peer Educators

Men talking to men.  Men role-modeling for men.  Men intervening with other men to do the right thing.  These are powerful images for campuses struggling with gender climate issues.  A male-led peer education model is becoming more and more popular, and this workshop can focus on forming such a model, or can provide training for those who are already engaged in this effort.  How do you talk to men without putting them on the defensive?  What does a male emotional vocabulary consist of, and how can we break though stereotypes, communication barriers and group-think?  These are the questions this workshop will offer constructive answers, activities and strategies to address.

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Best Practices for Campus Behavioral Intervention and Threat Assessment

Since the tragedy at Virginia Tech last April, many colleges and universities have started to take on the challenge of behavioral intervention. Seconding that decision is the clear instruction of the Virginia Tech Governor’s Panel to colleges and universities: “Incidents of aberrant, dangerous, or threatening behavior must be documented and reported immediately to a college’s threat assessment group, and must be acted upon in a prompt and effective manner to protect the safety of the campus community.”

The remaining question now becomes what is the best model for doing so comprehensively and effectively? From a collaboration of a team of experts and the melding of the best intervention practices from schools across the United States, has evolved a comprehensive model for a formalized College or University Behavioral Intervention Team (CUBIT).

CUBIT is an acronym for College and University Behavioral Intervention Team.  Colleges and universities utilize a variety of models to respond to students in distress.  From CARE teams to BIT models, higher education has recognized the need for more effective intervention functionality.  If the shootings at Virginia Tech in April of 2007 prompt nothing else from other campuses, our hope is that this tragedy will be a catalyst for other campuses to formalize and revise their current behavioral intervention efforts. 

While it is conceivable that many models can be effective in addressing the rising tide of student mental health issues and disruptive behavior, the CUBIT model  addresses the myriad concerns about students in distress and synthesizes the range of Virginia Tech Governor's panel recommendations cohesively, while translating some of their ill-fitting outsider’s recommendations into the language and capacities of institutions of higher education. 

The four key elements that set this model apart from common intervention model are that:

CUBIT incorporates a formalized protocol of explicit engagement techniques and strategies;

CUBIT is undergirded by sophisticated threat assessment capacity, beyond what typical colleges currently possess;

CUBIT facilitates a comprehensive reporting culture within the institution, supported by accessible data collection software with integrated threat assessment tools;

CUBIT intentionally integrates with campus and community resources such as crisis management plans, emergency response procedures, CISDT protocols, and existing campus risk management programs addressing sex offenders, criminal background checks and admissions screenings. 

This session will outline a model of best practice and offer innovative ideas in prevention, identification, and early intervention in respect to threat assessment and behavioral intervention. With some variation in implementation as you adjust the model to suit the needs, constraints, resources and capacities of your community, we offer the CUBIT model in our idealized conception, as the most far-reaching, comprehensive and engaged model of its kind. 

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Content Training for Peer Educators

This training is especially useful for fledgling peer education programs or new peer education classes without much prior training.  In this workshop, Brett discusses foundational information about sexual assault, problem drinking and hazing.  Facts and stats are covered, as well as typical questions and useful ways to present information.  Different modes of peer education, from single-sex workshops, to in-class training to peer theater are discussed, and different successful peer education models are highlighted.  The Bystander concept is introduced and its importance to peer education is shared.

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Strategic Programming

This workshop will share the concept and design of a four-year programmatic strategy addressing high-risk student health and safety issues.  The goal is for campus programmatic efforts to be developmental, progressive, consistent, and message-reinforcing.  We’ll discuss the importance of a master calendar and a centralized programming office or committee.  We’ll talk about programming boards and student activities and ask where the campus topic specialists are based on campus.  Themes or topics need to be chosen and narrowed.  Maybe this year the focus will be on hazing and campus climate, with less emphasis on some other issues.  Maybe alcohol and sexual assault are your top priorities.  We’ll look at whether there are times of each year when programming on this topic makes more sense than others?  And, we’ll discuss how a progressive curriculum can be devised and implemented, taking students though an accretive process where one program builds upon the last, toward a level of competence that can be assessed and demonstrated.

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Student Suicide: What College and University Administrators Need to Know About the Law and Best Practices

College and university administrators are all trying to find the right balance for managing the risk of suicidal students while doing the utmost to support them.  We are grappling with tough questions, and this workshop gives you fresh thinking and creative strategies for exploring the best practices for suicidal students that are emerging in our field.  From questions of approaching suicidality as a conduct violation to the merits of involuntary medical withdrawal procedures, this workshop is comprehensive.  It will address the “direct threat” test mandated by ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.  Re-entry will be discussed as will suicidality as a disability, pretext issues, and what are reasonable accommodations.  Mandated assessment and behavioral intervention models will also be reviewed.  HIPAA, FERPA and confidentiality limits as they pertain to crisis and recent wrongful death cases against colleges for suicides will be explored.

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Legal Issues for Campus Counselors and Therapists

Every campus struggles with questions about what counselors should know, what they should disclose to others, and how should they straddle the sometimes divided loyalties between their employment obligations and their professional ethics.  This workshop offers a legal update on pressing issues for campus counselors and therapists, including:

• Confidentiality of Records;
• Clarification of FERPA: fact/fiction;
• Release of information between and among health care providers and HIPAA 
• Administrators and law enforcement;
• Parental notification;
• Duty to warn;
• Documentation of Records;
• Campus Risk Management;
• Security and Safety Concerns: Before and During a Crisis.

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Search & Seizure on Campus:  A Law and Policy Best Practices Update

When the marijuana is found in your room, it’s hard to argue that you’re not in possession. So, students challenge the legality of the search. In fact, college students have been suing colleges and universities for allegedly illegal room searches for over 40 years.  These cases have been mostly sporadic and infrequent, and we thought we had a pretty good handle on 4th amendment challenges to student room searches.  Yet, search & seizure has recently become big news again, with a spate of incidents and cases involving Santa Clara University, UMASS, Amherst, the University of Houston, George Washington University, the University of Maryland and other campuses.  Not all the cases involve public universities, as the recent state action cases at Harvard University and Mercer University demonstrate.  Perhaps it is time to revisit the best practices and legal contours of this issue again on your campus.  This workshop will take you through state action, administrative searches, search procedures, reasonable scope, warrant requirements and exceptions, plain view, the smell of marijuana as probable cause, reasonable cause, admissibility of evidence in conduct hearings and prosecutions and other relevant search-related topics.

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Criminal Background Checks for Students and Staff: A Law & Policy Update

Recent actions by legislatures in North Carolina and Virginia have framed the question of whether colleges and universities should (or must) perform criminal background checks (CBCs) on incoming students.  The case of Tiffany Williams v. the University of Georgia tells us the potential liability that can be created by recruiting students known to have criminal histories.  Already, standards of practice for background checks of staff are well-established, and broadening standards for student-staff such as RAs are being debated.  This workshop will help participants to gain a thorough understanding of the current state of practice, where it is heading, and what the implications are for this trend of broadening background checks in higher education.  Topics include:

1. How do we establish a university-wide policy and administer it consistently?
2. How do we identify and define sensitive positions?
3. Determining how broad a check to perform – credit histories, state checks, DOJ/FBI 50 state and federal checks?
4. Is it appropriate/necessary to perform CBCs for residential life and other student-staff?
5. What are the implications for performing CBCs on all incoming students; Is this a best practice?
6. What role do sex offender registries play in this issue?
7. Does the undertaking of CBCs create a legal duty for purposes of negligent hiring causes of action (and possibly negligent admission?)?
8. What due diligence is required once a CBC is performed?
9. Does the federal update service create a continuing duty of care?
10. Can IHEs recruit/hire those with criminal histories, and what are the ramifications?
11. How do CBCs relate to questions about criminal history on admissions applications?
12. What is the best practice for informing a subject that a CBC will be performed?
13. What is an appropriate records retention policy for CBC results?
14. What can we learn from UC Berkeley’s CBC Review Committee Model?
15. Is there a difference between an arrest and a conviction, with respect to CBCs?

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Title IX Sexual Harassment Compliance Workshop

If yours is like most colleges, sexual harassment is one of your top five liability areas. Yet, most colleges are not compliant with the legal mandates of Title IX as they pertain to sexual harassment, let alone best practices for the field. Title VII gets all the attention, but employment-based claims are yesterday's news. Student-on-student claims are way up, and student affairs administrators are not as well prepared as HR for the investigation and resolution of these issues, especially when the sexual harassment has a physical component. This workshop can be addressed to faculty, administration, staff, students or other pertinent groups, helping colleges to assure compliance with Title IX, proper reporting, and appropriate responses.

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Risk Management Strategies for Student Organizations

More and more institutional risk is arising from the activities of student organizations, from fraternities to the mountain-climbing club. A structure for helping these organizations to monitor their own risks, and give oversight to college officials is highly beneficial. Some colleges have such systems, and they are well-developed. Others do not, or are just starting to help student organizations manage risk. This session is a primer on just how to craft such a system, and the ingredients needed to make it work.

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Hazing Risk Management

Hazing—within Greek organizations, bands, teams, ROTC or other student groups—is part of a culture. Most who haze know it is wrong, and often illegal. Prohibiting hazing is not enough to stop it. Hazing is secret—hidden underground and accepted by those on whom it is inflicted. Zero tolerance sends an important message, but risk management will be more successful when each group has a chance to reflect on its practices, confidentially identify those that are high-risk, and then work to problem-solve, either to change the practice to make it lower risk, or to abandon the practice. But, if the practice is to be abandoned, how can we create a meaningful, positive ritual, initiation, tradition or bonding experience that will replace it. This workshop is a nuts and bolts effort to eradicate hazing for high-risk groups. It can also be done as a trainer training.

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Student-On-Student Sexual Misconduct Prevention Program

90% of college sexual assault occurs in the presence of alcohol or other drugs. How alcohol affects sexual consent is THE issue. Students don't get it. They go out, get drunk, hook-up, with no thought for the consequences. This interactive program, "Drunk Sex or Date-Rape: Can You Tell the Difference" has been presented on over 800 college campuses. Brett Sokolow facilitates this interactive program where the audience gets to be the jury—based on a real life case. The jury hears the facts, learns the law, and takes a vote on guilt/innocence. No two juries vote alike, and students are outspoken in their views. The case is controversial, and a great conversation starter. Students think about what incapacity means, and how it impacts sexual consent. More importantly, they reflect on their own behaviors and choices.

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Faculty Consensual Relationships Policy Development

Faculty are resistant to limitations on their abilities to fraternize with students and amongst each other. Rightfully so. This workshop encourages faculty to take on voluntary restrictions, or implement self-goveranance policies—to great effect! Faculty often view these policies are as attempt to take away their power or rights. Another perspective is shared that enables faculty to see these policies as strong self-protection. Different policy models are explored, and rational language is proffered. Extending the policy to staff, to RAs, and creating exceptions is all in the details. Sometimes, faculty believe that if they enter into a relationship with a student, there might be penalties. This workshop is more about eliminating power differentials and the potential for ugly legal consequences for pursuing romantic liaisons at work.

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Problem Drinking Risk Reduction Program for Students

"Ten Things Every Student Should Know About Drinking" is a controversial approach to alcohol education. "Ten Things" is not about having a dry campus or telling students not to drink. It will reinforce those students who choose not to drink, or to drink moderately. But, many of our students are going to drink no matter what we do—so the goal of this program is to get them drinking smarter and drinking more safely. "BUT YOU CAN'T TEACH STUDENTS HOW TO DRINK! Anyone can get behind the wheel of a car and figure out pretty quickly how to get it to move. But, classes and licenses are needed to understand advanced control and the rules of the road. Drinking is no different than driving in this regard. It involves a skill set to be done safely and properly. No one is teaching this skill set to students for fear that they will drink or drink more. Most of our students are going to drink. They are going to endanger themselves. We have an obligation to help them build the skill-set that will allow them to reduce their risk. Doing so will have a long-term behavioral impact, because it changes how students process and control their drinking. That's what this program is all about.

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Changing the Drinking Culture of the College Campus

Dozens of colleges have attempted to break the hold of alcohol over their campuses. Dozens of colleges have failed. Is going dry the right answer? Getting rid of the Greek system? Will that really reduce risk, or just transfer it? What other approaches are available, and how effective are they? This session is a how-to recipe for colleges that truly desire to change their cultures, and don't want to fail as so many others have. Brett Sokolow is a change agent and expert problem-solver who has the knowledge and experience to help colleges accomplish very difficult goals. What's standing in the way of success? Are students part of the strategy? How environmentally holistic is it? Is there a comprehensive educational strategy that is sufficiently funded and staffed? Does social norming play a role? How? How is the strategy being introduced to the community? Are consistent messages being sent? Is it an evolutionary or revolutionary strategy? Are traditions being abandoned? Can we anticipate a reaction from alumni, parents and/or donors? All of these questions and many more are addressed, adding up to an honest opportunity for a safer campus.

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Students with Disabilities & Emotional Problems—Best Practices for Tough Times

The writing is on the wall. College administrators know that in the next ten years, this will be one of the toughest issues colleges face. ADA and 504 litigation abounds, and the Office for Civil Rights has now decided that it's not enough to treat a disabled student fairly, it's more a matter of how you treat them fairly (Guilford College Decision, 2002). From classroom disruption to overbooked counseling centers to suicidal students to judicial affairs offices that are asked to make exceptions for a student's disability, colleges are facing a crisis. Out of this morass, certain best practices are emerging, as ever more complex questions are arising. This workshop helps college administrators to understand what is coming, and to plan today for the issues colleges will face tomorrow.

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Sexual Assault Response—Training for RAs and Other Key Personnel

A student comes to you, seeking help in the aftermath of sexual violence. Will you have any idea of what to do? What are the best practices for helping a victim in need? What is the critical information you need to convey to someone who has just been assaulted? Will certain practices help the college to provide better assistance, thereby reducing the potential for liability? What is the significance of paper bags? Who should collect evidence? Should a victim shower? How long can the hospital collect bodily fluid samples? Will insurance cover an emergency room visit? What is a SANE? All these critical questions, and their answers are part of this useful training.

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Clery Act Compliance—Is Your Campus Reporting Crime Accurately?

This law was passed fourteen years ago, and most colleges still don't get compliance right. This is a nuts & bolts session on assuring accurate, full and correct compliance with the mandates of this campus crime reporting and recordation law. What are the 15 Clery Act crime categories? How do the geographic requirements work? What is the hierarchy rule and how does it work? Why are you reporting non-forcible sex offenses—I bet you're not likely to have any. How does your crime log look? It is complete and available? Are annual reports made available correctly, and are they distributed to prospective students and employees? What are the new requirements for reporting campus registered sex offender information? Brett Sokolow wrote the book on Clery Act compliance (The 1999 Clery Act Compliance Manual).

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Judicial Training

Brett Sokolow has trained judicial boards at over 300 colleges and universities. He is available to visit your campus for several different types of judicial trainings.

NCHERM offers general trainings on due process and fairness issues, in either half-day or full-day formats (4 hours or 6+ hours).

NCHERM also offers specialized training for sexual misconduct complaints, together with the general training above, or as a separate training, either in a half-day or full-day format.

NCHERM also provides an advanced deliberation training, focusing on the four steps of the dialectical process and an analytic for processing complex cases and multistep-violation cases. This training is six hours. Our judicial trainings have four formats:

Half-day: four hours of on-campus generalized training on procedural rules, fair process, questioning skills, and evidentiary considerations.

Full-day: six hours (or more) of generalized judicial training, including information from the half-day session, plus information on using expert information, precedent, sanctioning, gestics, and more mini-cases to train on.

Sexual Misconduct Judicial Training: available in half-day or full day versions (a lot of colleges do two halves, the general training and the sexual misconduct training). This training takes the skills of the other trainings, and applies them to the specific context of sexual misconduct, such as how to apply investigation findings, how to interpret medical and alcohol evidence, how to deal with past sexual history issues, and evidence about things like rape trauma syndrome.

Dialectical and Deliberation Training: six hours. This training focuses not on the hearing, but on the skill of applying policy to a complex set of facts through a five-step analytical method. It focuses on how we determine violations and deliberate on responsibility.

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Legislation and Litigation Update

Brett Sokolow provides workshops on cases and litigation in higher education law, updating you and your staff on important precedents, and compliance issues. Workshop topics feature updates on FERPA, the Clery Act and the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, Title IX and other current issues.

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Code of Conduct Revision
(on-site or off-site)

Has it been more than a year since you revised your student conduct code? If so, it's time to take a look, and update your code. Let NCHERM's expertise make it easier for you. Policy writing is what we do, and the four options below describe how we do it. Send us your conduct code, and we'll provide you with a written report, identifying areas of weakness, suggesting policies that you may want to consider adding, and highlighting areas where recent cases or legislation suggest or demand changes. We'll help to bring you up to date on both policies and judicial procedures, and we'll do it for a fraction of the cost that others might charge.

NCHERM POLICY REVISION SERVICE: This is our most popular revision service, offering you a written report detailing the areas of your policies (policies only—this service does not revise procedures-see below) that need attention, and offering guidance for how improvements can be made. The report offers suggested language to help improve your code and address ever-changing trends in student behavior and ethical development. Language is not based on cookie-cutter models, but is custom-crafted to suit your institutional policy style and philosophy.

NCHERM POLICY AND PROCEDURE REVISION SERVICE: This revision service offers you a written report detailing the areas of your policies and student conduct procedures that need attention, and offers guidance for how improvements can be made. The report offers suggested language to help improve your code and address ever-changing trends in student behavior and ethical development. Language is not based on cookie-cutter models, but is custom-crafted to suit your institutional policy style and procedural philosophy, with special attention on reducing risk via streamlined procedures, modifying legalistic procedures, and making your proceedings transparent and accessible.

TIME TO RESTRUCTURE THE CODE OF CONDUCT: You need help and you know it. The policies of your code of conduct haven't been revised in 7 years or so, and are no longer adequately serving your community. Yes, you could borrow codes from other institutions (thereby perpetuating their possible mistakes), or use the ever-popular model code (which too few institutions take the time to modify and adapt to fit their communities). Or, you can work with policy experts at NCHERM to custom-create a code of conduct that speaks directly to the needs of your community. An option to restructure conduct procedures can be added to this service.

UNDER FIRE? MAKE SURE YOUR CONDUCT CODE WON'T BE SEEN BY THE COURTS AS A SPEECH CODE: This policy review service is for colleges and universities that value free speech and want to ensure that their codes of conduct do not inadvertently prohibit speech protected by the first amendment. Today, colleges are being attacked and sued by interest groups such as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the National Association of Scholars. It is possible to create reasonable expectations for campus civility without trampling on the rights of free speech. Let NCHERM help you strike a constitutional and workable balance. This policy review service examines only those areas of your code that address speech and expressive conduct (such as discrimination codes, creeds, mission statements, freedom of speech statements, harassment provisions, and the like) to help you guarantee the constitutional rights of your students. You may be surprised at what we might find. A written report will detail problem areas and offer suggestions for alternative language and phraseology.

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Sexual Assault/Harassment Training for High-Risk Populations

This is a specialized training for coaches, greek leaders, and/or athletic leaders on risk management of sexual assault and sexual harassment. Topics include how to recognize problematic conduct, how to intervene, how to help a victim, best practices for responding to a complaint, legal duties of reporting, confidentiality, informal reporting, recordkeeping, and retaliation. Special considering is given to false-reporting, investigation responsibilities, the rights of accused students, and the special vulnerability/responsibility of students of campus prominence, such as greeks and athletes.

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Risk Management Strategies for Student and Judicial Affairs

This workshop offers a broad discussion of student affairs related risk. From staffing to training to federal compliance, this workshop helps to identify best practices and strategies for implementing risk management principles to reduce student affairs-related risk. Basic principles of risk management are shared, and special attention is given to risks related to judicial affairs.

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Investigation Training (Civil Rights)

In this workshop, Brett Sokolow will provide four hours of intensive training on a model for civil rights investigations on college campuses. Such a model can be utilized to address all instances of violence, bias-related incidents, hate acts, stalking, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. The training will feature and explication of the model, a discussion of who should serve as investigators, necessary training elements, cross-functionality, and best practices for investigation procedures.

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Best Practices for Responding to Campus Sexual Violence

It happens on every campus. Students, mostly women, are victimized by sexual violence. Every college has a duty on the prevention side, but also a duty to respond to incidents when they occur. This seminar will establish two effective paradigms for quality-controlled campus response and victim assistance. Role definitions, crisis service, protocol and other relevant topics will be discussed.

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Best Practices for Campus Sexual Misconduct Policy

This workshop identifies and discusses seventeen critical elements for establishing a proactive campus sexual misconduct policy. It explores each element in depth and examines its applicability to your campus culture and environment.

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Best Practices for Sexual Misconduct Judicial Procedures/Adjudication

This workshop identifies best practices for adjudicating sexual misconduct on college campuses. Composition of judicial bodies, separate boards, standards for adjudication, deliberations, evidentiary issues, appeals and dozens of other pertinent issues will be discussed on this topic of great potential liability.

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Risk Management Training for Campus Law Enforcement Personnel

This workshop offers a broad discussion of law enforcement related risk. From staffing to training to federal compliance, this workshop helps to identify best practices and strategies for implementing risk management principles to reduce law enforcement related risk. Basic principles of risk management are shared, and special attention is given to the special difficulties of enforcing and law policy in a campus setting.

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MyFace, Spacebook and Other Issues of Technology for Students

This one-hour presentation is an honest look at the pros and cons of technology in student's lives. The idea is not to paint a bleak portrait of technology, but to encourage viewing technology as a powerful resource that must be used responsibly. How to use it responsibly is the point of this presentation.

The litany of social networking sites grows daily, and the most popular are Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, Friendster, MyYearbook and LiveJournal. They draw millions of students into connection with each other, but are just as likely to glamorize sex and drugs as they are to connect people of similar backgrounds, interests and hobbies (yes, I know some people consider sex and drugs their hobbies). But, do students realize that employers check candidates out on MySpace? The hits for your name on Google can make or break whether you get that job offer. And, now that everything you post to the Net is archived forever at sites like www.zoominfo.com, it is almost a guarantee that your antics now WILL come back to haunt you when you're 40. Every picture. Every image. Every docYOUmentary on YouTube.com.

Students regard sites like Facebook as private, but they are public. Privacy settings and discretion in the amount of personal information revealed will help students to protect themselves from Cyberstalking, Cyberbullying, identity theft and other hazards of the online world. Students need to know that anything they post to an Internet site is no different than if they had nailed it to their front door or room door. If university officials find evidence of misconduct or crime, students should expect consequences. This isn’t unfair. If you’re 19 and choose to place a picture of yourself drunk, holding a beer on the outside of the door to your room, your RA will not ignore it. Facebook and other sites are no different.

The same issues of privacy and discretion impact the blogosphere, and this presentation will touch on online research tools, term paper piracy operations, Wikis and other dubious sources of information. The presentation will conclude with some helpful information about hardware, including proper use of cellphones, cameras, and digital images.

This presentation can be done as a small-group workshop or as a program for large student audiences. An accompanying PowerPoint presentation is available.

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