CARES: Community Accountability, Response, and Emergency Services
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Emergency: (212) 854-6666
Non-Emergency: (212) 854-3362
Nondiscrimination & Title IX: (212) 854-0037
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The safety and well-being of our students, faculty, staff, and guests are of the utmost importance to Barnard. CARES represents a conceptual and organizational evolution at Barnard in order to promote community safety and well-being.
The new structure includes Community Safety, focused on campus security concerns while incorporating new approaches to practice, breaks out a first response team, sensitive to the individual challenges and crises faced on a college campus, and enfolds the Nondiscrimination and Title IX office, ensuring equity and collaborating across these areas of expertise.
CARES Response
Responders to an array of student and community needs, including initial intervention based on the nature of a call or circumstance. CARES Response Team members will work collaboratively to smoothly transition a community member to the appropriate campus partners for additional follow-up when warranted. This will, of course, include swift referral of emergencies to the appropriate entities working closely with Community Safety.
CARES Preparedness
The CARES Preparedness staff oversee fire safety, prevention and education, and contribute to emergency protocols that provide members of the Barnard College community with important information on how to respond to a broad range of emergencies that may impact campus. Individual preparedness is also important, we encourage members of the community to think about personal preparedness as well as being familiar with campus information and resources.
Community Safety
Provides campus security and related emergency services as an integral part of the campus community. Community Safety responsibilities include patrolling the campus perimeter, observing and responding to mitigate risks or hazards, providing emergency response, and staffing the guard booths on the campus perimeter.
Nondiscrimination & Title IX
Oversees the College’s outreach and education related to the Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment. Provides outreach, information and response, supporting inclusive campus experiences for all members of the community.
About the New CARES Structure
Committing Resources
As part of a comprehensive approach to community safety, the College will in fact increase spending on services that support a range of health and safety needs. This includes the recently announced investment in the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being, investment in technology to improve security and streamline access considerations, and the development of the CARES response unit
Fostering Expertise
Barnard believes that this new structure will enhance safety because it refocuses Community Safety Officers on campus security and emergency services; compliance efforts will prioritize preparedness, prevention and risk mitigation; and with the addition of the CARES Response Team, increases our ability to respond with expertise on the range of safety issues that arise on a college campus.
Rollout
Changes will be implemented over the course of 2021 beginning with the introduction of a single call center. Centralized intake for non-emergency calls will help assessment for intake and referral for an in-person response. Any incident that is serious, unexpected, and possibly dangerous or a situation that poses an immediate threat to health, life, property, or immediate environment with high probability of escalating quickly/dangerously without quick intervention will be addressed in collaboration with the emergency line.
“Upstanding”
Barnard is allocating safety resources toward a new approach to community safety that, as its acronym indicates, centers on care. The hope is that this reimagining and reallocation contributes to Barnard taking proactive steps to end structural racism, while fostering a safe and welcoming environment. Barnard is committed to the idea that we should all be more than bystanders, and start behaving as 'upstanders' – individuals who, when confronted with something wrong, take action to change the world for the better.
Timeline
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Effective date of reorganization
Dr. Amy Zavadil assumes role of AVP CARES
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Dr. Elizabeth Scott-Francis, Nondiscrimination & Title IX Director, joins CARES
Community Safety unit name implemented, personnel assume new roles and responsibilities
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Activate CARES Line call center (newly staffed weekdays 830am-630p, supported by Community Safety 24 hours a day)
CARES Response staffing & training and CARES program development
Expand web-based CARES information and resources
Launch CARES outreach and education plan, including listening sessions and preparedness workshops
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CARES team leadership and campus partners develop foundation of practices for collaboration
Establish Nondiscrimination and Clery compliance consultation groups
Open search for CARES Director
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Assess feedback and lessons learned and apply to department development
CARES Department staff training, professional development, and certifications
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Prepare for implementation of CARES response student team, developed in collaboration with the Community Safety Group, for Academic Year 2021-22