For Faculty, Staff, and Other ISU Departments
| Presentations | Consultation | Emergency Notifications |
Presentations
Members of the DSO/SAS team often present to classes about the services the DSO provides. Help us proactively address concerns by speaking with your students. Contact Nicci Port (nport@iastate.edu; 294-1020) to talk about your ideas.
Consultation
When a call or an e-mail comes from the DSO/SAS, our goal is to collaborate with you to determine the best course of action for a student. We welcome details that you might have about the situation that will help us reach that goal.
We want to be supportive of you, as well. Often, you will be the first person to notice that a student needs assistance. We encourage you to utilize your relationship with the student to help them find the answers to their problems, but when a student's needs are more than you can provide assistance for, we can help. Together, we can come up with a plan for how to help them, identify appropriate referral services, and make a plan for follow-up, when necessary.
Contact Student Assistance Services when…
…you notice that a student isn't her/himself and the following advice isn't enough
- Ask them what's going on to get an understanding of the issues they're dealing with.
- Depending on their situation, refer them to the appropriate resources on campus, such as their academic advisor, their college, Student Counseling Services, or the Department of Residence.
…you haven't seen a student in your classroom and you've done the following with no success
- Contact them by e-mail and phone to let them know you've noticed their absence and want to talk On-line phonebook.
- Ask other faculty members if the student is attending their classes and make contact with the student through them.
…you think the DSO/SAS needs to know about a student's situation
- If you have helped a student solve an issue, but there's something that is telling you they may need more help, trust your feelings and let us know. If they contact us in the future for assistance, it will be good for us to know their history.
Emergency Notifications
An emergency notification IS:
- An e-mail notification from the DSO/SAS to a student's faculty members and academic advisers that is sent to the student, as well.
- An announcement of an emergency situation that has taken a student away from campus/classes (their own hospitalization, assault, accident, death in the family, etc.).
- A source of information for you so you can anticipate the absence and, sometimes, if you can expect the student to return to class.
- A written reminder for students that they should work with you to figure out how they will proceed in your course given their absence.
- Sent when a student can't notify you him/herself.
An emergency notification IS NOT:
- A notification for non-emergency situations (car problems, planned absences, minor illnesses, a past absence).
- A requirement for students. If a student notifies you that they are in an emergency situation, you can work out the details with them and not involve SAS.
- A request or mandate to excuse an absence (that is left to the professor to determine).
- Verification that the story the student/caller has told is true (verification is provided to the professor by
the student upon request).
- SAS staff does not investigate when we receive requests to send out emergency notifications. We often have students offer corroboration for their absence and when they do, we ask them to have that available for you if you need it. We do ask for details from the caller to assess the situation and offer advice about what should be done to make their transition back to class easier, but we do not contact hospitals, doctors, family members to assess the validity of an absence.
- Sent when a student can notify or has notified you him/herself.
How to initiate one
- Call 294-1020 or e-mail us at dso-sas at iastate dot edu and be prepared to share all that you know about the
situation.
- We often follow up with students after the emergency notification process. Knowing their situation can help us tailor our follow-up, get them the help they need, and help them be better prepared to re-enter your class.
When the student comes back
- Because we do not investigate, you are within your rights to ask for documentation of their absence. When you receive an emergency notification, you may consider writing to the student to let them know what you will need from them when they return.
- We recognize that you have the academic freedom to make decisions about absences and how they will affect a student's grade. However, please keep in mind that students who utilize the emergency notification service are typically recovering from a crisis and would benefit from your flexibility.
