Campus Security Issues:

Invisible Ink and Academic Transcripts

Associate Professor Jennifer AllenDean of Students

Campus Security and Safety Conference April 2015

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Invisible ink, also

known as security ink, is a substance used for writing, which is invisible either on application or soon thereafter, and can later be made visible by some means

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The means to make visible…

contesting ‘crowd invisibility’ (Barkun, 2007)

University context 2014

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University context 2014• 40,000 student, 2,700 staff

• Equity Focus– Largest provider of enabling programs

in Australia, offering about one third of the nation's Commonwealth supported places.

– Low socio-economic backgrounds, well above the sector average of 16 % (26% national average), higher ATSI participation 3.1% (1.8% national), 117 nationalities 16.2% (National average 25%)

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Evidence base

• Campus security as an academic issue

• Student academic support and campus security issues

• Promoting campus safety with students

• University structures and communication to support a holistic understanding of campus safety

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Virginia Tech

• Noticed by an English professor. Referred to counselling– A more truthful (and therefore more useful)

explanation of the Virginia Tech murders focuses not on Cho's character but on the interaction between it and the situations he was in, not on his personal identity but on the interplay between who he was and how other people treated him.[(Westhues, 2007).

• Lucinda Roy, former chair of Virginia Tech's English department, is also critical of the way the university treated Cho as a student in her book, No Right to Remain Silent: What We've Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech. Roy worked with him one-on-one in a poetry tutorial and feels he didn't get the help he needed.

Bondü and Beier (2014)

• Characteristics

– Current student 80%

– Single offender (100%)

– Both male and female but more single male

– Covered age range (22-62 years)

– 31.7% migration background

– Failure in performance a central trigger (consequence or reason?)

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Newman et al (2004)

• Five integral factors

– shooter’s perceptions of themselves as extremely marginal in the social worlds that matter to them

– Psychosocial problems

– ‘cultural scripts’ –attack as a model of problem solving

– Failure of surveillance system…’invisible’

– Availability of weapons

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Newman & Fox (2009)

• Higher education– Less information in advance to work

with

– More privacy concerns

– Problematic architectural surroundings

– Early warning notification difficult

– Communication between university staff and health authorities

• Faculty involvement

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University context 2014

• Holistic approach– ‘Triage’ points

• Campus Care

• Security

• Student Support Advisers

• Counsellors

• Health Service

– Behavioural Risk Group (BRG)

– Misconduct process• Academic/Non-academic

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• Information, advice, referral

• Early intervention

• Academic liaison

• Partner with other ‘triage’, security, campus care

• Permanent academic contact person…you are important

• Educational support role…improve academic performance

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Role of Dean of Students

Prevention, Intervention, Postvention

• Early identification of warning signs and risk factors…early response– Mental health problems

– Educational staff response

– Threat assessment teams

– Adequate interventions

– Emergency response plan

– Communication systems

– International student support

– Train staff/student response

– Permanent contact person (contest anonymity)

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‘Reading’ Academic performance

• Bringing together all observable data

– Psychosocial with academic

• security

• counselling

• academic performance and behaviour

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Case

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Invisible Ink

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Case

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Case

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Making visible

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References

• Barkun, Michael (2007). Terrorism and the ‘invisible’ perspectives on terrorism. Perspectives of Terrorism, 1 (6) Accessed 27th March 2015 http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/issue/view/6

• Bondü, Rebecca & Beier, Sophie (2014). Two of a kind? Differences and similarities of attacks in schools and in institutes of higher education. Journal of Interpersonal, 30 (2), 253-271.

• Newman, K., Fox ,C., Harding, D., Mehta, J., & Roth, w. (2004). Rampage: The social roots of school shootings. New York: Basic Books.

• Newman, Katherine & Fox, Cybelle (2009). Repeat Tragedy: Rampage Shootings in American High School and College Settings, 2002-2008. American Behavioral Scientist, 52 (9), 1286-1308.

• Westhues, Kenneth (2007). Mobbing and the Virginia Tech massacre. Ontario, Canada: University of Waterloo. Archived from the original on April 14, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.

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