If students, faculty, and staff feel threatened about an aspect of their identity, the newly established Bias Incident Response Process (BIR Process) may help those affected feel safer at the College.
This process was developed largely by the Office of Intercultural Relations and Director Erin Hoffman under the direction of Rob Flot, vice president of student affairs and dean of students.
According to the school website, the BIR Process “is designed to respond to incidents that can be more difficult to define than harassment or discrimination, but that can nonetheless harm or threaten individuals or groups based on characteristics of identity including, but not limited to, sex, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, religion or religious affiliation, sexual orientation or preference, age, marital or family status, disability or veteran status.” Community members can find examples of potential bias incidents on the BIR Process webpage.
If feeling threatened, “I would recommend that Public Safety be the first place that members of our community go to if they were—or simply feel that they have been—threatened, regardless of whether or not it is bias related,” said the College’s Director of Public Safety Richard Cohen.
“Too often, people believe they will get an immediate response simply by sending an email or completing an online form, which is not at all accurate,” he said. “If imminent safety concerns exist, contact us personally, immediately, and directly. Once those imminent safety concerns are addressed, the rest will flow into and through the proper established processes.”
That said, when community members do decide to fill out the BIR form online, “investigation of reports will begin within 72 hours by a member of the Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT), which includes staff, faculty and students,” Cohen said. “While personal mediation between individuals or groups could occur if the reported incident appropriately lends itself to that, other potential outcomes could include, but are not limited to the development of educational programming, promotion of campus dialogue, recommendation of an appropriate change in institutional policy or practice, and referral of affected student(s) to Counseling Services, the Ethics Center or other campus resources.”
Dean Flot said that “the development of the Bias Incident Response Process started in December of 2015. The decision to develop the process was the result of conversations that happened over the course of many months.”
A small working team was assembled to develop the process, Dean Flot said. “The process of developing the actual BIR Process included a number of conversations with a variety of people at the College, and, an examination of similar processes on other colleges campuses,” he added.
“Though there is [a]process in place to respond to student reported allegations of bias, there is still some work yet to be done regarding how the BIR process would be used in a classroom, or other academic environment,” Flot said. “Maintaining academic freedom is paramount to the BIR Process.”
Additionally, according to Dean Flot, “Until the faculty can complete a review of the process, it will only be applied to student allegations of bias, if any, that occur away from the classroom and academic instruction.”
Cohen also connected the BIR Process to the larger aims of the Lake Forest College community. “I believe that the ultimate goal of this newly defined process to recognize, identify, and address real or perceived incidents of bias within our community [is]not only the right thing to do, but is also truly embodied in the tenants of the Forester Five and the College’s long-held Mission Statement,” Cohen said.
To read the BIR Process protocol, go to lakeforest.edu/studentlife/intercultural/institution/bias.php
