The Bias Education and Response Team at the University of Oregon is under review, according to Assistant Dean of Students Marcus Langford.
“The Bias Education and Response Team and its functions are currently under review as the university determines the best and most equitable ways to support and hear those who are targeted by acts of bias in a holistic way,” Langford said.
The response team, also known as BERT, is part of the Student Care Team at UO, which provides resources for students about incidents disruptive to their educational experience. Students can access this care team through a variety of resources, including report forms pertaining to specific kinds of incidents, like bias, misconduct or self-harm. Students can also refer other students to the Student Care Team.
The Office of the Dean of Students and Langford have taken on the team’s responsibilities due to staffing issues and the external review
The website for reporting incidents of bias tells students it will allow UO to respond to the incident and create change in a timely manner, but it also tells students the BERT will not initiate disciplinary actions and that reporting an incident of bias is simply for data collection.
In addition to the information prefacing the form, it warns students that the report they file could go on their educational record and requires students to check a box stating they understand that fact in order to submit. Langford said the warning is only on the form because the school has a “responsibility to keep and maintain records.”
Overall, the Community Care and Support form only sees five to 10 reports per term, Langford said. The 2017 UO Senate Bias and Education Response Team Task Force Final Report reported 85 incidents of bias for the 2014-15 school year — some bias incidents were reported on the form, the others through a different route like to a faculty member. The report also listed the number of incidents per school year since the team’s establishment in 1999, of which there were an average of 50.
While the Community Care and Support form is good for alerting the right people that a student may need support, it is also just as beneficial for a student to talk with any faculty and they’ll hopefully be connected with the right people, said Jimmy Howard, the assistant dean of students for prevention and response.
“There’s no particular way we want these [reports] to come in,” Howard said, “we just want students to reach out for help.”
