In early February, Georgetown launched a new website to strengthen its Threat Assessment Program, which has been serving the university since 2012. Through the added new feature of a website, the university seeks to reach out to more students and ensure that it is using the best tools available to maintain campus safety.

The program’s newly launched website, threatassessment.georgetown.edu, contains information on the program and provides comprehensive instructions on how students and individuals can utilize the program to address dangerous situations and prevent harm.
Georgetown’s first Threat Assessment Program was initiated in 2012, following a new national standard for hazard planning for higher education adopted by the American National Standards Institute that strongly recommends that every U.S. college and university have a threat assessment team or program. Threat assessment, also known as behavioral threat assessment or threat management, is widely considered to be the most effective practice for preventing intentional violence on campus.

Before 2012, there was not one overarching body that tracked students and individuals who could pose a potential danger or threat to other people in the community.

“I think it made good sense that the university went from what was called Safety Net, which was a group of people who tried to monitor and track these students, to one centralized body with one person leading a group with overarching responsibility for working with people whose behavior has raised some concern and understanding what’s going on with them,” Department of Public Safety Chief of Police Jay Gruber said in a question-and-answer session on Georgetown’s website.

The Threat Assessment Program consists of several trained threat assessment teams that serve the Main Campus, the Medical Center and School of Medicine, the Law Center, the School of Continuing Studies and SFS-Qatar. All team members have been trained in behavioral threat assessment and follow best practice procedures for dealing with uncertain situations. Each team consists of representatives from multiple offices on campus, and the program operates through close collaboration among these offices.

“There’s the university’s department of public safety, student conduct, university counsel and student affairs – which includes Counseling and Psychiatric Services,” Gruber said. “It’s great to have constituents from different groups help identify possible threats on campus. A student affairs case manager can track cases well and take their expertise and bring it to the table and engage with students who may need help or pose some kind of threat.”

Director of Threat Assessment in the Office of Public Affairs Marisa Randazzo explained the rationale behind the creation of the new website.

“We created the website to help people understand what threat assessment is and to encourage them to report threats and other concerning behavior to the program,” Randazzo said. “It is also to answer some questions that people may have about what happens when they pass along a concern about a student, friend or colleague that they’re worried about.”

Randazzo also believes that Georgetown University students are an essential part of the university’s Threat Assessment Program, and they play a significant role in making sure that the Threat Assessment Program can fully achieve its effect.

“Students may be the first to become aware of threatening or dangerous behavior,” she said. “The earlier that the Threat Assessment Team hears about threatening or dangerous behavior, the sooner we can help to evaluate the situation and determine the best way to reduce risk and maintain safety.”

Randazzo encourages any student who becomes aware of threatening or potentially dangerous behavior to contact the Threat Assessment Program at [email protected], or any office that is involved in the program, such as Student Conduct, Residence Life, or the Georgetown University Police Department, who would then alert the Threat Assessment Program.

Katie Schmidt (SFS ’18) believes that the Threat Assessment Policy will help raise awareness on campus about safety issues.

“I think it’s important that we know how to react and who to alert when we are unsure so that we can pre-empt a situation before it actually happens,” Schmidt said. “The Threat Assessment Program, including the new website, would definitely help in that aspect.”
Jordan Smith (NHS ’17) said that she was not aware of the program before and hopes that the new website will increase student awareness of Georgetown’s risk assessment and management.

“I think it sounds like a really good program, it’s something we should have in place for people that feel unsafe or feel like their life is being threatened,” Smith said. “I think it’s something that needs more publicity so people know that there this is resource available if they are feeling threatened.”