Assessing the functional tactics of threat assessment team leaders on college and university campuses in the United States

Abstract

The safety and security on college and university campuses has changed in recent years. As the scale and damage of these acts of violence have increased, higher education administrators are challenged to create processes and procedures that can be used by Threat Assessment Teams. The purpose of this study was to determine how these Threat Assessment Teams function on college and university campuses in the United States through the Situational Awareness Theory lens (Endsley & Garland, 2000). A qualitative narrative study model was utilized for this research study and information was collected from six senior level student affairs practitioners from across the United States to answer the research questions of "How do campus leaders describe their institutional preparedness for unplanned events?" and "What practices of the threat assessment teams are prevalent at medium sized institutions of higher education in the United States?"