NorthWest Arkansas Community College

Behavioral Review Team (BRT)

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Mission

The mission of the Behavioral Review Team (BRT) is to provide a multiple perspective appraisal of reported student behaviors and to suggest appropriate interventions and strategies to establish conditions for student success.

Goals

• To provide a comprehensive process for understanding and helping students who are either having problems themselves or causing problems for others on campus.
• To provide positive interventions, services, information and referrals for students to prevent crisis situations.
• To provide an avenue for centralization of information across the campus community.
• To foster a culture of appropriate reporting through provision of a college-wide standardized reporting and tracking system for problematic behavior.
• To gather all information available from reliable and pertinent sources, internal and external, to inform BRT's decision-making process and designate the appropriate intervention.
• To recognize campus wide patterns of behavioral issues and recommend strategies for prevention and support.
• To communicate progress and outcomes of BRT interventions or referral as thoroughly as possible while protecting student confidentiality and rights.

Faculty Rights

In the learning college model, faculty seeks to engage learners as full partners in the learning process with student learners assuming primary responsibility for their own choices (O'Banion, 1997).  Unfortunately, sometimes student choices and behaviors impeded the learning process.  When this occurs, faculty members have the right to direct students to cease activities that disrupt the orderly operations of the college.  This is especially true in the classroom where faculty members are primarily responsible for fostering a learning environment.  As such, faculty may direct students to stop behaviors interfering with classroom, laboratory, studio, etc., teaching presentations and/or activities as well as behaviors impeding other students' learning.

In particular:

• Faculty has the right to direct students deemed disruptive to leave their classroom. (However, faculty cannot withdraw or drop a student from their class.)
• Also faculty has the right to require students asked to leave a class to meet with the faculty member prior to gaining permission to return to class.
• The BRT is not intended to supersede standard classroom management techniques used by faculty.

Potential Actions of BRT

• File report when indicated with Office of Community Standards to process possible conduct violation
• Request pertinent internal or external medical, educational, or law enforcement records
• Draw up behavioral contracts between the reported student and BRT refer student for psychological assessment and/or counseling sessions with Ozark Guidance Center
• Provide student with information about campus and/or community resources which may offer assistance
• Schedule meeting/interview between reported student and BRT
• Consult with other faculty members, staff or students familiar with the reported student
• Promptly follow up and/or gather more information from the person making the report
• Upon examination of the information reported to the BRT, the following actions are possible:
• The person who makes a report to the BRT will be notified if the BRT subsequently reports the student to the Office of Community Standards.

This is not an exhaustive list, rather possible actions the BRT could take in addressing the reported behaviors.  In addition, the BRT consultation or actions in no way impedes any other College department in performing its duties and/or enforcing public laws.  Nor does it supplant the imposition of disciplinary actions due to student conduct code violations, academic grading sanctions, or the academic grievance process.