resources > Toolkit > Responding to an Incident
Response Procedures
This set of procedures offers step-by-step guidance for institutions responding to incidents of harassment while also centering the needs of the researcher. The checklists for administrators and researchers included in this section can be used to organize your institutional response to harassment.
Procedures
When responding to incidents of occupational abuse, follow these six actionable steps:
- Assess safety concerns as a first step.
- If the person is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1 and contact campus police.
- Even if the person is not in immediate danger, offer to connect them with campus police or security and encourage them to file a report.
- In some states, stalking, harassing, and physical threats can be punishable by law. If you suspect criminal behavior, offer to help the researcher connect with local police.
- Online attacks can spill offline and may affect students or classes. If the harassment and intimidation might disrupt job responsibilities or the classroom experience, the dean’s office can facilitate the temporary relocation of the targeted researcher’s office space or classroom.
- Offer ongoing emotional support.
- Keep in mind that not all media outlets adhere to the same standards of reporting; some may publish content meant to provoke outrage and strong emotions. No matter where the abuse is coming from or in what form, it is not the researcher’s fault.
- Meet with the person being harassed as soon as possible. Use this time to assure them they have wider university support and that they are not the only one who has been targeted by this kind of abuse. Remind them that the intimidation and harassment are not their fault and let them know that they have options to handle the situation. Ask if you can take notes during this meeting to aid in future reporting and communication with university partners.
- Share your institution’s policy on intimidation and harassment and explain that your institution will stand behind its community members and the integrity of their work. Let the researcher know that your institution upholds the mission of academic freedom by promoting inquiry and the search for truth and by advancing knowledge and understanding through research and scholarship like their own. Express to them that you value their contribution and that you support their work.
- Let the researcher know that their job is not in jeopardy based on public reaction to their work. Let them know that you are aware that their productivity might be impacted due to the emotional strain of the abuse and the time-consuming task of managing abusive messages.
- Check in with the individual on a regular basis to ask how they are doing and to make sure that their needs are being met. Make sure to include them in response strategies whenever possible. This will help them manage and feel more in control of an overwhelming experience. Once the abuse has subsided, ask them for feedback on support efforts. Use this information to improve future responses to harassment and intimidation.
- Collect information about the abuse.
- If the researcher has not filed an official report with the university, walk them through the form and help them submit it. Help them document the incident in as much detail as they feel comfortable. Ask them if they have any supporting documents or screenshots to attach to the form. A detailed report will ensure that the affected individual will not have to repeat the story to every person involved, which can be traumatizing. Additionally, the report can help other departments provide specialized support and offer the university a comprehensive picture of harassment and intimidation experienced throughout the academic community.
- Encourage the individual to document the harassment through screenshots and other means to build a body of evidence for potential action within the university and/or by police. It can be overwhelming and emotionally exhausting for the target of an attack to weather the onslaught of comments and communications, let alone save and organize them for administrative use. Encourage the researcher to turn off notifications on their phone and to create a filter on their email inbox to automatically sort incoming messages. It can also be helpful for the targeted individual to enlist the help of a trusted friend to monitor and preserve emails, social media accounts, and voicemail messages on their behalf. University emails may be forwarded to a specified individual within the IT department for collection and retention.
- Collect information such as:
- Date and time of harassment
- Identity of all targets
- Identity of all perpetrators
- Harassment medium (e.g., social media, email, etc.)
- Whether the harassment has migrated offline or to other channels
- Evidence of the harassment (e.g., screen shots, images, URLs)
- Any additional information including hashtags, email addresses, phone numbers connected to the harassment
- How the targeted individual has responded so far (e.g., reporting the harassment to the police, to a social media site, directly responding, ignoring, etc).
- This resource commissioned by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media offers more information about monitoring and systematically recording digital threats.
- Activate the Researcher Support Team.
- Communicate with your Researcher Support Team to report the current incident of abuse. The harassed person may not have considered all of their options at this point, so you can walk them through aspects of your collaborative response strategy and review who within the institution can assist them with their specific needs. Explain that key people and departments at the institution can help them with different areas of concern, such as IT/technology, the office of faculty affairs, mental health services, public affairs and communications, or human resources. Connect the individual to key people within the Support Team and offer to bridge communications with the dean, provost, and/or supervisor, including the individual in all areas of communication and planning where appropriate.
- In addition to connecting the person to the university’s Researcher Support Team, send a brief communication to all leadership within the school or department in which the intimidation or harassment occurred, notifying leadership of the incident and requesting they not respond to any media inquiries until a communication plan is implemented.
- In all cases of occupational abuse, and especially in cases of online harassment:
- Provide the individual with digital security resources to help them report the abuse to relevant online platforms, lock down accounts, change social media accounts to engage private settings, block perpetrators in email and social media accounts, and take other necessary safety measures. PEN America has developed and regularly updates resources on digital hygiene best practices.
- Be a bridge to IT. Enlist the help of IT to lock down email, set up new accounts, and assist with email forwarding and inbox filters. IT can also help to pull any personal information off websites, directories, and public-facing syllabi.
- Determine who in IT will be handling harassing emails and encourage the targeted individual to forward such emails as attachments.
- Some people who face online abuse choose to ignore it, while others decide to respond to certain people or groups. Whatever tactic the individual decides to take, encourage them to develop a communications strategy early on and to coordinate with the university’s communications or public relations department. Responses that are intentional and strategic are typically most effective.
- Make sure the person is aware that emails, texts, and other writings may be considered public records and therefore subject to public records requests. The Public Record’s office can help individuals determine what records fall within the definition of “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of public’s business” and could therefore be made public.
Tips for Supporting the Researcher/Scholar
In addition to offering emotional support and suggestions for practical action…
- Share our RSC resource for researchers experiencing occupational abuse with the individual. This guide includes information on mitigating risk, coping during and after an attack, communications response strategies, and more. Let the affected researcher know that they can read and digest these resources in their own time and that the university will play an active role in protecting them.
- Whenever possible, include the researcher in your response strategy. This will give them a sense of control and will signal your institution’s commitment to supporting employees who face occupational abuse .
- Social support is key to dealing with abuse and harassment. Ask the person if they have a support network and if not, designate a colleague to regularly check in with them.
- When someone is facing an online attack, it can be helpful for them to connect with others who have had a similar experience. Identify faculty or other members of the university community willing to share their experiences and stories. The organization Faculty First Responders can also put the affected person in contact with a network of supporters who have experienced and responded to harassment and intimidation.
- Colleagues at the university can sometimes help with bystander intervention strategies such as publicly defending the harassed person. However, colleagues should be aware that this may expose them to their own campaign of harassment and intimidation, and they should only do so with the targeted person’s affirmative consent.
- If available, encourage the individual to contact a university faculty advocate who can attend meetings with them to provide support.
- Offer to connect the individual with mental health resources available through the university or within the larger community.
- Check in with the person regularly to ensure they have the resources they require.
- Consider the possible impact of harassment and intimidation on the person’s academic career. Be aware that the risks associated with intimidation and harassment may differ in relation to the affected person’s employment status and career level. Junior or non-permanent researchers may have more to lose if their work is publicly scrutinized or if they abandon an important line of research. It may be helpful to consult with Academic Affairs personnel on mitigating the possible negative effects on the person’s professional obligations. It may also be helpful to consider how to strategize around the long-term impact on the person’s reputation, for example when soliciting external reviewers for tenure and promotion.