Bias Incident Response Team to examine trends, incidents on campus
Chancellor Jordan implemented a seven-member Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT) to keep members of the university community safe.
According USC Aiken Ombuds and team lead, Dr. Melencia Johnson, the BIRT was created out of a group the chancellor put together, now including faculty, staff and students to respond to and address specific issues of bias in the campus community.
The team will address reported issues of unfair prejudice in favor of or against any individual or group or policy on campus. Students, staff and faculty are all encouraged to report offenders among any of those groups.
According to the usca.edu/birt web page, reports should describe “... acts or behaviors performed knowingly, unconsciously, directly or implicitly that are motivated by the offender’s bias against race, ethnicity, religion, age, creed, language, abilities/disabilities, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographic region, immigration status, veteran status, and health status.”
The preferred means of reporting is through a link found usca.edu/birt about two-thirds down the page that appears as red box around the words “REPORT A BIAS INCIDENT ONLINE” in red type.
On the multi-purpose form, the sixth block down, is “Nature of this report,” the tenth selectable choice is “bias” and further selections and spaces allow for complete reporting in detail.
The team meets every two weeks as needed to review reports from students, staff or faculty. Thus far the team has only heard from students and reports from the others are expected.
Afterwards, the BIRT delivers information to the appropriate person, in human resources (HR,) housing or the student services teams.
“We’ve just gotten started, but we will be doing a lot of tracking, keeping track of the bias incidents reported to us each semester” said Johnson.
As Ombuds, she meets with students confidentially and impartially to discuss any problem, but prefers for bias incidents in the online form, which can be anonymous.
The BIRT preference is for individuals to leave contact information so they can respond directly and recommend resources to address the issue reported.
Reporting can be very specific or very general, the form allows space for names of witness, attaching photos, recordings and related documentation.
Reports go directly to both Johnson and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Ahmed Samaha who then forward the information to the BIRT.
BIRT is not a sanctioning body, but will make referrals, for example to HR if necessary, in response to incidents.
Multiple reports about the same incident, will only amount to one incident. Tracking incidents rather than reports will allow trends to be observed. The University Judicial Board and HR will be presented with instances of unacceptable behavior patterns tracked so they can take appropriate action.
