The Critical Incident Readiness Team was created in 1994 following increasing national concerns about incidents of workplace and campus violence. The role of this multi-disciplinary group is to provide for rapid, systematic, and coordinated early intervention in critical incidents. CIRT works with the President and other university leaders to address critical incidents.

Critical incidents may include threats or acts of violence, major demonstrations or riots, floods, major fires, tornadoes, airplane crashes or train derailments, major chemical spills, hostage situations, sniper activity, building collapse or explosion, bomb threats, widespread disease and outbreak, and situations that involve violent individuals or that have risk of escalating to violence.

CIRT is chaired by the Dean of Students and its membership includes staff from the offices of Risk Management, Student Counseling Services, University Counsel, Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, Human Resource Services, Department of Residence,  University Relations, Office of the Senior Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Students Office, Environmental Health and Safety, Graduate College, Equal Opportunity, and the Department of Public Safety.

CIRT meets routinely to discuss potentially emerging issues as well as engage in emergency readiness planning, CIRT also meets in the event of emergencies as listed above, CIRT discussions are typically considered confidential in nature.

Threat Assessment

Early in CIRT's existence, the team identified a need for effectively gathering information and assessing situations involving threats of violence. The ISU Police Division has coordinated this function since CIRT's inception. While threat assessment is coordinated through ISU Police, it often involves the Dean of Students Office, Human Resource Services, Department of Residence, and other entities on campus.