Faculty & Staff FAQs | February 16th Incident Response

Answer: Visit the Faculty & Staff Incident Resource page for available mental health resources.

Answer: Please have grace for these students; encourage them to seek mental health services; seek advice from mental health professionals or your supervisors if you need help navigating situations like this. If you think a student is not getting the support they need, you can make a CARE referral here.

Answer: Listen and be empathetic. Please refer them to Student and Family Connections or the CARE team if they would like to make a report.

When the university gets a report of roommate conflict, the university investigates it. University staff, including RAs, successfully resolve roommate conflicts regularly.

For example, if there is a complaint about someone smoking marijuana in housing in violation of university policy, that complaint is investigated. If it can’t be proven during the investigation, the student will receive counseling and a reminder that using marijuana in university housing is a violation of university policy. Subsequent complaints of the same nature will result in a CARE Team referral, and the student will be required to complete a course called Choices. Of the students participating in the Choices course, only 5% re-offend. Additional proven offenses would result in a removal of the student from housing.

Sometimes roommates have other types of conflicts. If there is a report of a conflict that results in a threat, it is investigated. If a student reports feeling unsafe in their current housing assignment, they will be offered an opportunity to immediately be placed in alternate housing. That housing may be temporary until a permanent housing arrangement may be made. It is also possible that roommates do not want temporary housing, or they resolve the immediate dispute and do not want to proceed with a move until a later time. In this situation, students are not forced to move.

UCCS and other CU campuses do not conduct background checks on students. On the application for admission to UCCS, students are asked to attest to their own past and current behavior. And that attestation is taken at face value. This is common among most universities across the country. We do ask students to answer questions under a pledge of conduct. The questions are:

• Are you currently under any pending investigations, facing allegations OR have you been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any educational institution you have attended for the final four years of secondary schooling (e.g., 9th grade and forward) for stalking, sexual assault and/or domestic violence?
• Are you currently under any pending investigations, facing allegations OR have you been found responsible for an academic misconduct violation at any educational institution you have attended for the final four years of secondary schooling (e.g., 9th grade and forward)? You need only to report findings of responsibility for academic misconduct if your educational record reflects that you were assigned probation, suspension, removal, dismissal and/or expulsion from the institution.
• Do you have any pending criminal charges?
• Have you been adjudicated guilty or convicted of assault, kidnapping, voluntary manslaughter or murder within five years of submitting your application for admission?
• Have you ever been adjudicated guilty or convicted of stalking, sexual assault and/or domestic violence?

Students are not required to answer "yes" to any of the following questions if the criminal adjudication or conviction has been expunged, sealed, annulled, destroyed, erased or otherwise required by law or ordered by a court to be kept confidential. If a student does answer yes to any of the questions, follow up is conducted with that student.